Looking for cowslips

Looking for cowslips is a citizen science campaign that started in Estonia in 2019 and aims to collect information about the frequency of the different types of cowslip (Primula veris) flowers. The campaign was done in collaboration with Estonian Fund for Nature. In 2021, the campaign expanded across Europe and we worked with many partners across Europe. This widespread and belowed spring flower is heterostylous. This means it has two genetically determined types of flowers - S-morph and L-morph. S-morph has short style and long stamen, L-morph has long style and short stamen. The project calls out everyone interested to record the frequency of each morph in 100 flowers at one habitat. This is done, because naturally the frequency should be even and studying how and why the frequency changes helps us find out how cowslip and other species connected to it are doing.

The results from 2019 have been published as an open-access scientific article.

The campaign will also be pan-European this spring and we look forward to everyone participating!

Webpage of the campaign

 

Coverage:

Lookingfor Cowslips logo
Estonian Fund for Nature
Riiklikult tunnustatud teaduse populariseerija 2019
EcolChange logo
EL Regionaalarengu Fond