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pale yellow sun cup

Habit Herbs annual, appearing conspicuously grayish, densely strigillose, sometimes also glandular puberulent distally. Herbs (annual or perennial), [shrubs].
Stems

usually with decumbent lateral branches from basal rosette, 5–60 cm.

Leaves

1–5(–11) × 0.2–0.7(–1.4) cm;

petiole 0–0.2(–0.4) cm, distal ones sessile;

blade lanceolate to narrowly ovate, base often cuneate to truncate, sometimes attenuate, margins sparsely denticulate, apex acute to obtuse.

alternate or basal;

stipules absent.

Flowers

opening near sunrise;

floral tube 1–4.2 mm;

sepals (1.5–)2.5–8 mm;

petals yellow, sometimes with 1–3 red dots basally, (2–)3.5–13 mm; episepalous filaments (0.5–)1.5–6.5 mm, epipetalous filaments (0.2–)0.5–3.8 mm, anthers (0.4–)0.8–2.2 mm, less than 5% of pollen grains 4- or 5-pored;

style (2.1–)3–10.5 mm, stigma surrounded by at least anthers of longer stamens, often by both sets, 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

usually 1–3-coiled spiral, subterete in living material, 4-angled when dry, 13–24 × 0.7–1.2 mm.

Seeds

1–1.5 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 pallida

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).

P. H. Raven (1969) determined Camissoniopsis pallida to be self-compatible and primarily autogamous.

(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. Floral tube 1–3 mm; petals (2–)3.5–6(–8) mm; styles (2.1–)3–6.5 mm.
subsp. pallida
1. Floral tube 3.8–4.2 mm; petals 6.5–13 mm; styles 6.5–10.5 mm.
subsp. hallii
Source FNA vol. 10. FNA vol. 10.
Parent taxa Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Camissoniopsis Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae
Sibling taxa
C. bistorta, C. cheiranthifolia, C. confusa, C. guadalupensis, C. hardhamiae, C. hirtella, C. ignota, C. intermedia, C. lewisii, C. luciae, C. micrantha, C. robusta
Subordinate taxa
C. pallida subsp. hallii, C. pallida subsp. pallida
Synonyms Sphaerostigma pallidum, Camissonia pallida, Oenothera abramsii, O. micrantha var. abramsii
Name authority (Abrams) W. L. Wagner & Hoch: Syst. Bot. Monogr. 83: 205. (2007) Dumortier: Fl. Belg., 89. (1827)
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