Oenothera canescens |
Oenothera calcicola |
|
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beakpod evening primrose, spotted evening-primrose |
Texas beeblossom |
|
Habit | Herbs low, forming clumps 10–50 cm diam., densely strigillose throughout; from a taproot, lateral roots producing adventitious shoots. | Herbs perennial, clumped, usually sparsely strigillose, rarely glabrate or sparsely villous, hairs erect, sometimes sparsely glandular puberulent distally; from twisted, woody rootstock. |
Stems | many-branched from base, leafy, (10–)15–25(–38) cm. |
erect, branched below and just above ground, branched also proximal to inflorescences, (40–)60–250 cm. |
Leaves | cauline, (0.3–)0.6–1.5(–2.5) × (0.05–)0.15–0.4(–0.6) cm, fascicles of small leaves 0.2–0.6 cm often present in non-flowering axils; petiole 0–0.1 cm; blade lanceolate to linear, base cuneate, apex acute. |
in a basal rosette and cauline, basal 3–13 × 0.6–2.5 cm, blade spatulate to oblanceolate, cauline (1–)2.5–12 × 0.1–1 cm, blade linear to narrowly oblanceolate, margins slightly to conspicuously sinuate-dentate. |
Inflorescences | slender. |
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Flowers | several opening per day near sunset; buds usually without free tips, rarely free tips 0.2–0.3 mm; sepals (7–)8–12 mm; petals pink, rarely white, streaked or flecked with red, fading bright purple, (8–)10–17 mm; filaments 6–8 mm, anthers often with red longitudinal stripe, 3–6 mm; style (16–)22–27 mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. |
4-merous, zygomorphic, opening near sunset; floral tube 3–9 mm; sepals 6–12 mm; petals white, fading dark pink to red, slightly unequal, elliptic-obovate, 7–11 mm; stamens presented in lower 1/2 of flower, filaments 3–7 mm, anthers 2.5–5 mm, pollen 90–100% fertile; style 9.5–19 mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. |
Capsules | woody, ovoid, narrowly winged, wings 0.8–1.5 mm wide, (7–)9–12(–14) × 2–4 mm (excluding wings), abruptly constricted to a conspicuous, sterile beak, (2–)3–4.5 mm, indehiscent; sessile. |
lanceoloid to narrowly ovoid, narrowly 4-winged, 7–12 × 1.5–2.5 mm, tapered to a sterile stipe 2–5 mm. |
Seeds | asymmetrically cuneiform or oblanceoloid, 1.2–1.5 × 0.4–0.5 mm. |
(2 or)3 or 4(or 5), light brown or reddish brown, 1.5–2.5 × 0.8–1.3 mm. |
2n | = 14. |
= 14. |
Oenothera canescens |
Oenothera calcicola |
|
Phenology | Flowering May–Aug. | Flowering Apr–May. |
Habitat | Prairie depressions, playas, margins of ditches, temporary wet areas. | Dry limestone, gypsum, or caliche soil, slopes. |
Elevation | (400–)700–1800 m. ((1300–)2300–5900 ft.) | 400–1800(–2100) m. (1300–5900(–6900) ft.) |
Distribution |
CO; KS; NE; NM; OK; TX; WY
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TX; Mexico (Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas) |
Discussion | Oenothera canescens is restricted to prairie depressions, playas, ditch margins, and other places of temporary water in the High Plains of the western United States from Goshen County, Wyoming, southeast to Hayes County, Nebraska, south through eastern Colorado, the eastern tier of counties in New Mexico, western Kansas, and to Garza and Dawson counties in the Texas Panhandle; also disjunct populations from Chautauqua, Sedgwick, and Stafford counties, Kansas. The illegitimate names Gaurella guttulata (Geyer ex Hooker) Small, G. canescens (Torrey & Frémont) Cockerell, and Gauropsis guttulata (Geyer ex Hooker) Cockerell pertain here. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Oenothera calcicola occurs at mostly higher elevations and more montane areas than other species of subsect. Stipogaura, from the southern Trans-Pecos and Edwards Plateau regions of Texas southward into northern Mexico. P. H. Raven and D. P. Gregory (1972[1973]) determined O. calcicola to be self-incompatible. It is known to form hybrids with O. suffrutescens. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 10. | FNA vol. 10. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Gaurella canescens, Megapterium canescens, O. guttulata | Gaura calcicola |
Name authority | Torrey & Frémont in J. C. Fremont: Rep. Exped. Rocky Mts., 315. (1845) | (P. H. Raven & D. P. Gregory) W. L. Wagner & Hoch: Syst. Bot. Monogr. 83: 211. (2007) |
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