The Carinthian botanist, Wulfen, lived for some time in Ljubljana more than two hundred years ago, and at that time studied the plant world in Carniola. At Sv. Primo¾ above Kamnik and below Ljubelj, he found a primrose with large pink flowers, which he mistakenly took for Entire-leaved Alpine Primrose, which does not grow in our Alps. New species are sometimes given the name of a botanist who was at first mistaken, so the plant was later called Wulfen's Primrose.
It is a member of the Primrose family. It has a basal rosette of simple, lanceolate, pointed, shining, coriaceous leaves, edged with wide cartilaginous margins. The low flower stem is 2 to 10 cm high and for the most part carries 1 to 2 flowers. The flower is large, the largest of the primroses here. There are five heart shaped, rose red petals. It grows only on limestone on crumbly rocks and rock crevices in the high mountains. Wulfen's Primrose is most common in Slovenia in the Kamnik-Savinja Alps and the Karavanke. It becomes rarer in the Julian Alps. It can be found outside the borders of Slovenia in the Carnian Alps and in border mountain regions in Italy and Austria, since plants do not recognise state borders.
Wulfen's Primrose was protected in Slovenia in 1949. At that time, the list of protected plants was extended, since many endemic and rare species were added, irrespective of whether they were really under threat.
