Oxlips are only found in East Anglia, and have been declining in recent years. There are now a few sites where it is protected and now flourishes, such as Hayley Wood in Cambridgeshire and Great Bardfield in Essex.
Its flowers are slightly larger and paler than those of the Cowslip, and are arranged in a more one-sided drooping umbel. It differs from the hybrid False Oxlip by not having any thickenings or folds at the mouth of the corolla tube.