I hope it is okay to post this but I can't get onto the Facebook site.
I've been sketching a Cowslip but having measured, colour matched and annotated I find my specimen doesn't conform, in that, instead of five petals it has six. I sacrificed two flowers to double check and yes, 6 petals and 6 anthers but most of the flower heads on the same plant have five. I took another flower from the plant beside it and all flowers have five petals and five anthers. I've looked through every wildflower book I have and all state 5 petals and anthers. Apart from this it looks like a perfect specimen of Cowslip. I googled 'mutations' in this plant and all I find refers to colour differences.
Could anyone tell me if it is a Cowslip (Primula veris) or if I have wrongly identified it?
Growing profusely in open grassland West of Paris.
Hi Jennifer, thanks for that. Embarrassingly, I would have accepted your 8 lobed evening primrose without question in the past. I did agonise over this cowslip for some time and eventually decided it was a mutation, so thankfully my final painting has five petals.
mutations do happen. I found an evening primrose with a double headed stigma… 8 lobes instead of four. Sorry that no one replied to you sooner….