The Crystallophlomis section (often referred to as Nivalid primulas) consists of plants with long, more or less narrow leaves, generally upright, usually with white or pale yellow farina underneath. Each plant may have several flower stems, with one, two or three whorls of flowers, pink, purple, white or cream. In winter they form robust resting buds at ground level, and in the wild these would be covered with snow for a long time. The long, occasionally hot summers and too-warm winters make some of these plants difficult to grow in Britain, but others are long-lived, good garden plants. This section has a subsection Maximowiczii, which we list as a separate group of plants.

Primula cf. chionantha may be either the white-flowered (sub-species chionantha) or the purple-flowered (sub-species sinopurpurea) form. One or two whorls of the flowers can be expected.