Image of Primula carniolica Jacq.

Description:

Slo.: kranjski jeglic - Habitat: Narrow humid ravine, north faced, steep mixed woods, in vertical and overhanging very humid rocks, precipitations 2.300 mm/year, average temperature 10 deg C, elevation 260 m (850 feet), prealpine phytogeographical region. - Comment: Carniolan Primrose is a rare but probably the most famous, narrow endemic plant of Slovenia. The beautiful, tender plant is a recent endemics which emerged during the ice ages. It grows in shady, secluded gorges in rocky fissures as well as in steep grassland in a tiny territory of about 70 km (40 miles) by 25 km (15 miles) in south-west Slovenia and nowhere else. In 18. century it was discovered by the physician Giovanni Antonio Scopoli working in Idria. But he did not recognise it as a new species. Later Balthasar Hacquet sent the plant to Vienna, where it was described under all the rules as a new species and named 'carniolica'. At that time, under Austrian empire, the present territory of Slovenia was divided into a number of provinces. One of these was named Carniola.