Primula capillaris is a rare species of flowering plant in the primrose family

Primulaceae

Primulaceae is a family of flowering plants with about 24 genera, including some favorite garden plants and wildflowers. It is also known as the primrose family.- Genera :...

 known by the common name Ruby Mountains primrose, or Ruby Mountain primrose. It is endemic to Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

 in the United States, where it is limited to the Ruby Mountains

Ruby Mountains

The Ruby Mountains comprise one of the many mountain ranges of the Great Basin in the western United States. They are the predominant range in Elko County, in the northeastern section of the state of Nevada. To the north is Secret Pass and the East Humboldt Range, and from there the Rubies run...

 of Elko County

Elko County, Nevada

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 45,291 people, 15,638 households, and 11,493 families residing in the county. The population density was 3/sq mi . There were 18,456 housing units at an average density of 1/sq mi...

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This small plant is a few centimeters tall, growing from a short rhizome

Rhizome

In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...

. The thick, hairless leaves are linear or somewhat lance-shaped, 1 to 6 centimeters long and no more than half a centimeter wide with rounded tips. The delicate, showy flower has a bell-shaped calyx of green sepal

Sepal

A sepal is a part of the flower of angiosperms . Collectively the sepals form the calyx, which is the outermost whorl of parts that form a flower. Usually green, sepals have the typical function of protecting the petals when the flower is in bud...

s. The corolla is reddish or bluish purple with a yellow center. Blooming occurs in July and August.

This plant occurs in subalpine

Subalpine

The subalpine zone is the biotic zone immediately below tree line around the world. Species that occur in this zone depend on the location of the zone on the Earth, for example, Snow Gum in Australia, or Subalpine Larch, Mountain Hemlock and Subalpine Fir in western North America.Trees in the...

 climates at elevation

Elevation

The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....

s between 2710 and 3160 meters, in meadows and coniferous forest and woodland habitat. It grows on soils derived from glacial till, sometimes in mats of Selaginella, such as Watson's spikemoss

Selaginella watsonii

Selaginella watsonii is a species of spikemoss known by the common name Watson's spikemoss. It is native to the western United States, where it grows in many rocky habitat types, including high mountain peaks in alpine climates. This lycophyte is forms mats or cushions of short, forking stems...

 (Selaginella watsonii). Other plants in the habitat include fewseed draba (Draba oligosperma), alpine avens

Geum rossii

Geum rossii is a species of flowering plant in the rose family known by the common names Ross' avens and alpine avens. It is native to North America where its distribution spans northern Canada and the high mountains of the western United States. It grows at high-latitude and high-elevation...

 (Geum rossii), shrubby cinquefoil

Shrubby Cinquefoil

Dasiphora fruticosa is a shrub in the family Rosaceae, native to the cool temperate to subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere, often growing at high altitudes in mountains.It is a deciduous, much branched flowering shrub growing to 0.1–1 m tall, rarely up to 1.5 m...

 (Potentilla fruticosa), orpine stonecrop

Sedum debile

Sedum debile, commonly called Orpine Stonecrop or Weakstem Stonecrop, is a low growing carpet forming flowering plant species of the genus Sedum in the family Crassulaceae....

, mountain sorrel

Oxyria digyna

Oxyria digyna a species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family. It is common in the tundra of Arctic...

 (Oxyria digyna), smooth prairie star (Lithophragma glabra), Pacific woodrush

Luzula comosa

Luzula comosa is a species of flowering plant in the rush family known by the common name Pacific woodrush. It is native to western North America from Alaska to California to Colorado, where it can be found in moist spots in forests and meadows and many other types of habitat. It is a perennial...

 (Luzula comosa), bluebells

Mertensia ciliata

Mertensia ciliata is a species of flowering plant in the borage family known by the common names tall fringed bluebells and streamside bluebells. It is native to the western United States, where it often grows in moist habitat, such as subalpine meadows and creeksides...

 (Mertensia ciliata), and whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis).

Threats to this attractive plant include poaching

Poaching

Poaching is the illegal taking of wild plants or animals contrary to local and international conservation and wildlife management laws. Violations of hunting laws and regulations are normally punishable by law and, collectively, such violations are known as poaching.It may be illegal and in...

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