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beach evening-primrose, beach suncup

Habit Herbs short-lived perennial, sometimes woody at base, usually densely strigillose throughout, rarely glabrous, also villous distally. Herbs (annual or perennial), [shrubs].
Stems

prostrate, decumbent, or ascending from base, to 60(–130) cm.

Leaves

0.5–5 × 0.3–2.2 cm;

petiole 0–1.5(–2.5) cm, distal ones to 1 cm;

blade narrowly ovate, base attenuate, cuneate, or cordate, margins sparsely serrulate, apex acute.

alternate or basal;

stipules absent.

Flowers

opening near sunrise;

floral tube 2.1–8.5 mm;

sepals 4–11.5 mm;

petals yellow, often red-dotted near base, 6–20 mm; episepalous filaments 2.8–8 mm, epipetalous filaments 1.5–6 mm, anthers 1–3 mm, less than 5% of pollen grains 4- or 5-pored;

style 6–23 mm, stigma surrounded by or exserted beyond anthers at anthesis.

usually actinomorphic, rarely slightly zygomorphic (in Oenothera), (3 or)4-merous;

stamens 2 times as many, or rarely as many, as sepals;

pollen usually shed in monads, rarely tetrads (Chylismia sect. Lignothera).

Fruit

a dry capsule, usually dehiscent, sometimes indehiscent.

Capsules

often coiled in 1–2 spirals, 4-angled, 10–25 × 2–2.5 mm.

Seeds

1.2–1.3 mm.

few to numerous, without hairs or wings, [very rarely with asymmetrical dry wing (Xylonagra)], or with dry (Oenothera), erose or smooth wing, or with thick, papillate wings (Chylismiella).

Camissoniopsis cheiranthifolia

Onagraceae tribe Onagreae

Distribution
w United States; nw Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
North America; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies
Discussion

Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).

Camissoniopsis cheiranthifolia occurs on slopes and dunes along the immediate coast and on islands from Coos Bay, Curry County, Oregon, to the vicinity of San Quintín, Baja California; it is also known from the east shore of San Francisco Bay and locally on sand dunes along the lower Sacramento River, California, 0–100 m. P. H. Raven (1969) determined C. cheiranthifolia to be self-incompatible (some populations in subsp. suffruticosa) or self-compatible (both subspecies) and apparently pollinated by oligolectic bees of Andrena subg. Onagrandrena (Raven); Raven subdivided the species into two intergrading subspecies.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Genera 13, species 265 (12 genera, 199 species in the flora).

Onagreae account for more than half the total genera in Onagraceae and diversified from a center in southwestern North America (L. Katinas et al. 2004). Delimitation of the tribe by W. L. Wagner et al. (2007) differs from previous ones by the exclusion of Gongylocarpus, now in its own tribe, by the segregation of eight genera (Camissoniopsis, Chylismia, Chylismiella, Eremothera, Eulobus, Neoholmgrenia, Taraxia, and Tetrapteron) from Camissonia, and by the inclusion of three previously separate genera (Calylophus, Gaura, and Stenosiphon) in Oenothera. Within the branch of the family that lacks stipules (Gongylocarpeae, Epilobieae, and Onagreae), the last two tribes form a clade that has very strong molecular support (R. A. Levin et al. 2003, 2004), but no obvious morphological synapomorphy. The clade may be defined by a cytogenetic change from the base chromosome number of x = 11 found in Circaeeae, Gongylocarpeae, and Lopezieae, to x = 18 in Epilobieae, and x = 7 in Onagreae; however, these changes could also have occurred independently. Other than the new chromosome number x = 7, the only apparent morphological synapomorphy for Onagreae alone is pollen with prominent apertural protrusions (J. Praglowski et al. 1987, 1989), a character state also found in Circaeeae (Praglowski et al. 1994). The monophyly of Onagreae has moderate (Levin et al. 2004) to strong support (V. S. Ford and L. D. Gottlieb 2007).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Plants primarily herbaceous; petals 6–11 mm; style 6–9 mm; stigma usually surrounded by anthers.
subsp. cheiranthifolia
1. Plants woody at base; petals (10–)12–20 mm; style 13–23 mm; stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis.
subsp. suffruticosa
Source FNA vol. 10. FNA vol. 10.
Parent taxa Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Camissoniopsis Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae
Sibling taxa
C. bistorta, C. confusa, C. guadalupensis, C. hardhamiae, C. hirtella, C. ignota, C. intermedia, C. lewisii, C. luciae, C. micrantha, C. pallida, C. robusta
Subordinate taxa
C. cheiranthifolia subsp. cheiranthifolia, C. cheiranthifolia subsp. suffruticosa
Synonyms Oenothera cheiranthifolia, Agassizia cheiranthifolia, Camissonia cheiranthifolia, Holostigma cheiranthifolium, Sphaerostigma cheiranthifolium
Name authority (Hornemann ex Sprengel) W. L. Wagner & Hoch: Syst. Bot. Monogr. 83: 204. (2007) Dumortier: Fl. Belg., 89. (1827)
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