Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Chylismia munzii

Chylismia sect. Chylismia

Munz's evening primrose
Habit Herbs annual, strigillose, often densely so. Herbs usually annual, sometimes perennial, rarely biennial.Leaves basal and cauline, usually with well-developed basal rosette; blade usually pinnately or bipinnately lobed, sometimes with scattered, irregular lobes, sometimes lateral lobes greatly reduced or absent, terminal lobe elliptic, narrowly to broadly ovate to oblong, lanceolate, oblanceolate, cordate, or subcordate.
Stems

several, 8–50 cm.

Leaves

primarily in basal rosette and also cauline, 1.5–20 × 0.5–3 cm;

petiole 0.5–5 cm;

blade pinnately lobed, terminal lobe ovate to narrowly ovate, 1.3–6 × 0.6–3 cm, margins denticulate, brownish oil cells lining veins abaxially.

Racemes

nodding, not congested, elongating in mature bud.

Flowers

opening at sunrise;

buds with or without subapical free tips;

floral tube orange-brown inside, 2–3 mm, villous inside;

sepals 4–7 mm;

petals bright yellow, with red dots near base, fading pale yellow or yellowish orange, 3–10 mm;

stamens subequal, filaments 4–8 mm, anthers 3–6 mm, ciliate;

style 8–18 mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis.

usually opening at sunrise, rarely at sunset;

floral tube 0.4–9 mm;

petals usually bright yellow, rarely white or cream, usually with red dots basally, or lavender to purple with white or yellow basally, sometimes with darker flecks near base, fading yellow, orange, reddish, or lavender;

pollen shed singly.
Capsules

widely spreading, becoming sharply reflexed, clavate, 8–24 mm;

pedicel 8–28 mm.

Seeds

0.8–1.6 mm.

2n

= 14.

Chylismia munzii

Chylismia sect. Chylismia
Phenology Flowering Mar–Jun.
Habitat Mesic slopes, washes.
Elevation 600–1600 m. (2000–5200 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; NV
[BONAP county map]
w United States; nw Mexico
Discussion

Chylismia munzii is known from middle elevations in the mountains at the north end, eastward from, and south of Death Valley, from Saline Valley and the Grapevine Mountains, Inyo County, California, and Yucca Flat, Nye County, Nevada, southward to the Kingston Range, San Bernardino County, California.P. H. Raven (1962, 1969) determined this species to be self-incompatible. It sometimes hybridizes with C. brevipes subsp. brevipes and C. claviformis subsp. aurantiaca.

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

Species 14 (14 in the flora).

Section Chylismia consists of 10 diploid (2n = 14) species, and two that are partly polyploid (2n = 14, 28) [C. scapoidea subsp. scapoidea and C. walkeri subsp. walkeri (only one tetraploid population)]; no chromosome counts are available for the remaining two species, C. atwoodii and C. confertiflora (P. H. Raven 1962, 1969). Species of sect. Chylismia usually occur on sandy desert slopes, flats, and washes, often in sagebrush shrubland in the northern part of its range, or on rock slides or cliffs, mainly in the Mojave and northwestern Sonoran deserts, the Great Basin, and the lower elevations of the surrounding Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains. The limits of this range stretch from southeastern Oregon, central and southern Idaho, and central Wyoming, south through Nevada and Utah to eastern and southeastern California, northern Baja California and northwestern Sonora, Mexico, Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and western Colorado. Several species are rare; C. confertiflora and C. specicola are known only from the Grand Canyon in northwestern Arizona, C. megalantha only from the vicinity of the type locality in Nye County, Nevada, and C. atwoodii also only from a narrow area around its type locality in Kane County, Utah. Others are widespread, especially the very diverse C. claviformis (11 subspp.), C. scapoidea (4 subspp.), C. walkeri (2 subspp.), and C. brevipes (3 subspp.). Chylismia scapoidea is the only species in the genus to occur east of the continental divide, both in Colorado on the upper Arkansas River in Fremont and Pueblo counties, and much more widely in Wyoming. Chylismia does not occur west of the Cascade-Sierra Nevada axis. Because R. A. Levin et al. (2004) included only C. claviformis in their analysis, they did not test the monophyly of sect. Chylismia; however, this section is both geographically distinct and morphologically set apart by the characteristic pinnate leaves (modified in some species, which have retained the entire apical lobe but do not have the smaller lateral lobes). Most species have bright yellow petals with red dots proximally and ultraviolet reflectance distally; some subspecies of C. claviformis have white petals; three species (C. atwoodii, C. heterochroma, and C. megalantha) have lavender or purple petals, often with lavender or purple flecks toward base, and white or yellow at the base and no reflectance, clearly a derived condition within the section (Raven 1962, 1969).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Stamens usually 4, rarely 8, then antipetalous anthers abortive, smaller.
C. exilis
1. Stamens 8, anthers all fertile.
→ 2
2. Petals lavender or purple, often with purple or lavender flecks near base.
→ 3
3. Stigma surrounded by anthers at anthesis, plants autogamous; petals 2–6 mm.
C. heterochroma
3. Stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis, plants outcrossing; petals 7–14 mm.
→ 4
4. Capsules 8–14 mm, erect or ascending; floral tubes 4–9 mm.
C. megalantha
4. Capsules 11–25 mm, spreading to reflexed; floral tubes 0.6–1 mm.
C. atwoodii
2. Petals yellow or white, often with red dots at base.
→ 5
5. Capsules distinctly clavate.
→ 6
6. Stigma surrounded by anthers at anthesis; petals 1.5–5.5(–8) mm.
C. scapoidea
6. Stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis; petals 2–10 mm.
→ 7
7. Mature capsules sharply reflexed; petals bright yellow.
C. munzii
7. Mature capsules ascending, spreading, erect, or slightly reflexed; petals yellow or white.
→ 8
8. Raceme branches intricate and filiform; leaves in poorly defined basal rosette; capsules 4–10 mm.
C. parryi
8. Raceme branches not filiform; leaves primarily in well-defined basal rosette; capsules 8–40 mm.
→ 9
9. Stamens subequal; leaves usually pinnately lobed, with well-developed lateral lobes, sometimes these reduced or absent, margins dentate, sinuate-dentate, or serrate.
C. claviformis
9. Stamens unequal, differentiated into 2 sets; leaves usually unlobed, rarely pinnately lobed with reduced lateral lobes, margins entire or sparsely denticulate.
C. eastwoodiae
5. Capsules oblong-cylindrical.
→ 10
10. Stigma surrounded by anthers at anthesis; petals 1–6 mm; styles 1.5–6(–7) mm; racemes erect in bud, mature buds individually reflexed.
→ 11
11. Plants perennial, base sometimes woody; leaf blades glabrous or sparsely villous; anthers glabrous.
C. specicola
11. Plants annual or short-lived perennial, base not woody; leaf blades moderately to densely villous; anthers glabrous or sparsely ciliate.
C. walkeri
10. Stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis; petals 3–18 mm; styles 7–18 mm; racemes erect or nodding in bud, mature buds individually reflexed or not.
→ 12
12. Racemes erect to nodding, elongating in bud, mature buds individually reflexed; plants virgate; floral tubes 1–3 mm.
C. multijuga
12. Racemes nodding, mostly elongating after flowers open; plants not virgate; floral tubes 3–8 mm.
→ 13
13. Buds without free tips or with subapical free tips 1–2 mm, or with minute apical free tips less than 1 mm, and then bud pubescent but not glandular puberulent; plants branched or unbranched distally; stamens subequal.
C. brevipes
13. Buds with subapical free tips 1–2 mm, glandular puberulent; plants well branched; stamens differentiated into 2 sets.
C. confertiflora
Source FNA vol. 10. FNA vol. 10.
Parent taxa Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Chylismia > sect. Chylismia Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Chylismia
Sibling taxa
C. arenaria, C. atwoodii, C. brevipes, C. cardiophylla, C. claviformis, C. confertiflora, C. eastwoodiae, C. exilis, C. heterochroma, C. megalantha, C. multijuga, C. parryi, C. scapoidea, C. specicola, C. walkeri
Subordinate taxa
C. atwoodii, C. brevipes, C. claviformis, C. confertiflora, C. eastwoodiae, C. exilis, C. heterochroma, C. megalantha, C. multijuga, C. munzii, C. parryi, C. scapoidea, C. specicola, C. walkeri
Synonyms Oenothera munzii, Camissonia munzii Camissonia section tetranthera, Oenothera section tetranthera
Name authority (P. H. Raven) W. L. Wagner & Hoch: Syst. Bot. Monogr. 83: 207. (2007) unknown
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers