Would you take the primrose path?

 William Shakespeare used the term to show a contrast between such a path and more challenging routes:

Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own rede.”

During this season of grey, it is difficult to blame anyone that chooses the colorful primrose path. 

 Primrose plants have started to show their vibrantly hued flowers. Cathy Minkiewicz reported purple primrose blooms in her West Tisbury yard last weekend. These flowers, which are native to Europe, are some of the earliest blossoms and might just convince us that spring could really be on its way. Their name derives from the Latin phrase prima rosa, which means first rose, though they are not related to roses.  

During a mild winter, like the one we are having, it is possible for primroses to bloom as early as December, so this February flowering should surprise no one and delight us all, as they did William Wordsworth.  He was effusive: “Now when the primrose makes a splendid show, And lilies face the March-winds in full blow, And humbler growths as moved with one desire Put on, to welcome spring, their best attire!”

Primrose plants are not just beautiful. they also offer fabulous forage. All parts, including the roots, leaves, and flowers, are edible. Leaves can be consumed fresh, as potage herbs, or even dried and steeped as tea. Roots can be ground up, and flowers are perfect for crystallizing and using as decoration or making a homemade wine if you can find enough of them. Consider that one recipe for five liters of wine calls for 350 flower heads! 

As always, take care to properly identify any plants that you want to eat. And in some sensitive individuals, the leaf of primrose can be a skin irritant.

 If you prefer to enjoy primrose in your yard rather than in your kitchen, be sure to take a close look at the flowers. Two distinct types of blossoms show the brilliant coevolution between species, in this case plant and insect.

Primrose plants can have flowers of two types, pin-eyed or thrum-eyed. Pin-eyed flowers have the female stigma above the male anthers, which are found halfway down the flower tube. Thrum-eyed flowers have the opposite arrangement, with the male anthers above the female stigma located midway down the flower tube. This arrangement ensures that as long-tongued insects obtain nectar, pollen is collected and then deposited on the next flower having the opposing orientation. 

It was Charles Darwin, who considered himself a “sort of machine for observing facts and grinding out conclusions,” that first pointed out this perfection of cross-pollination. He knew that “As natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowments will tend to progress towards perfection.”

Perhaps there aren’t any imperfections in the primrose, a flower that brings spring a bit closer and proves Shakespeare’s point that a rose by any other name — or of another species entirely — smells just as sweet.

Suzan Bellincampi is director of the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown, and author of Martha’s Vineyard: A Field Guide to Island Nature.