A cowslip is rather more likely since they grow in meadows or, of course, it could have been an oxlip.

For a while the plant was known as the Bardfield Oxlip.

They include primrose, cowslip and oxlip.

It has a good diversity of chalk grassland species, including toothwort, addder's tongue and false oxlip.

The oxlip was voted the County flower of Suffolk in 2002 following a poll by the wild plant conservation charity Plantlife.

Primula x digenea, the hybrid between Oxlip and Primrose (P. vulgaris)

Bardfield Oxlip (Primula elatior).

The SSSI lies within the distribution of Oxlip Primula elatior and all three woods contain this species.

For a general account of the Bardfield oxlip (Primula elatior) see Miller Christy, "Linn.

The oxlip,P. elatior, is a rare, shade-loving, species with flowers like a primrose in size and colour, but hanging to one side at the top of a tall stem.

The common name "oxlip", from "ox" and "slip", may refer to the fact that oxlips (and cowslips) are often found in boggy pasture used by cattle.

The hybrid between the primrose and the cowslip ( Primula veris x vulgaris , sometimes called Primula variabilis ) is known as the oxlip .

To add to the confusion the true oxlip is also known as the paigle , a name which, in the past, has been rather indiscriminately applied to several wildflowers including buttercups.

The soil favours Oxlip and Meadowsweet - the wood is described as 'one of the largest Oxlip woods on the chalky Boulder Clay in Britain'.

With respect to Primula, and one point about which I feel positive is that the Bardfield and common oxlips are fundamentally distinct plants, and that the common oxlip is a sterile hybrid.

I have never heard of the common oxlip being found in great abundance anywhere, and some amount of difference in number might depend on so small a circumstance as the presence of some moth which habitually sucked the primrose and cowslip.

County Road 5 (CSAH) is a county route serving Spencer Brook Township, Oxlip, Bradford Township, Isanti, Isanti Township, Blomford and North Branch Township.

Spreading by underground rhizomes, it thrives in deep shade or semi-shade, where its dense growth may shade out other woodland flowers such as oxlip, fly orchid, and even young ash seedlings, but in the open it eventually gives way to other plants.

It may be confused with the closely related Primula elatior (oxlip) which has a similar general appearance and habitat, although the oxlip has larger, pale yellow flowers more like a primrose, and a corolla tube without folds.

Usually it is called the common oxlip because it occurs quite frequently, but purists prefer to call it the false oxlip since there is a third species, Primula elatior , now found only in the eastern counties of England, which is, for them, the true oxlip .

To add to the confusion the true oxlip is also known as the paigle , a name which, in the past, has been rather indiscriminately applied to several wildflowers including buttercups.

Usually it is called the common oxlip because it occurs quite frequently, but purists prefer to call it the false oxlip since there is a third species, Primula elatior , now found only in the eastern counties of England, which is, for them, the true oxlip .

Bardfield Oxlip (Primula elatior).

The SSSI lies within the distribution of Oxlip Primula elatior and all three woods contain this species.

For example, in the area grows Aconitum variegatum, Hottonia palustris, Thalictrum aquilegiifolium, Corydalis intermedia, Primula elatior, Carex riparia, or Lemna trisulca.

The larvae feed on Alchemilla alpina, Anemone, Anthyllis vulneraria alpestris, Aster amellus, Centaurea jaceak, Cerastium, Globularia cordifolia, Leucanthemopsis alpine, Leucanthemum, Primula elatior, Primula farinosa, Ranunculus acris and Salix reticulata.