The Oxlip only grows in rather special conditions: it must have its feet in boulder clay with a good degree of moisture and its head must be in dappled shade such as that provided by ancient Birch and Oak woodland. This is exactly the habitat Waresley Wood in Cambridgeshire provides and the Oxlips thrive there in their hundreds.
The Oxlip has larger flowers than the Cowslip (P. veris) and they always produces a one-sided flower head. Stace suggests that it lives in wood more or less lacking in P vulgaris. This is a little mysterious as Waresley Wood is full of Primroses too, making the hybrid between P elatior and P vulgaris a regular occurrence.
Waresley Woods, Cambridgeshire, April 1978
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Added on December 12th 2004