Oenothera canescens |
Oenothera elata |
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beakpod evening primrose, spotted evening-primrose |
evening primrose, Hooker's evening-primrose, western evening primrose |
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Habit | Herbs low, forming clumps 10–50 cm diam., densely strigillose throughout; from a taproot, lateral roots producing adventitious shoots. | Herbs biennial or short-lived perennial, densely strigillose and either sparsely or moderately villous, with appressed or spreading hairs (sometimes with red-pustulate bases), distally sometimes also glandular puberulent. | ||||
Stems | many-branched from base, leafy, (10–)15–25(–38) cm. |
erect, green, flushed with red proximally or red throughout, unbranched or branches obliquely arising from rosette and secondary branches arising from main stem, 30–250 cm. |
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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 10–43 × 1.2–4(–6) cm, cauline 4–25 × 1–2.5(–4) cm; blade dull green to grayish green, rarely red, narrowly oblanceolate or oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic or narrowly lanceolate, margins usually flat, rarely undulate, bluntly dentate or subentire, teeth sometimes widely spaced, proximal blades sometimes sinuate-dentate toward base; bracts persistent. |
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Inflorescences | erect, unbranched. |
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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. |
opening near sunset; buds erect, 6–10 mm diam., with free tips terminal, erect, 1–7 mm; floral tube (20–)30–45(–50) mm; sepals yellowish green, red-striped or strongly flushed with red, 27–50 mm; petals yellow to pale yellow, fading orange or pale yellow, very broadly obcordate, (25–)30–47(–55) mm; filaments 17–25 mm, anthers 8–23 mm, pollen 90–100% fertile; style 50–90 mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. |
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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. |
erect or slightly spreading, dull green or gray-green when dry, narrowly lanceoloid, 20–65 × 4–7 mm, free tips of valves 0.5–2.5 mm. |
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Seeds | asymmetrically cuneiform or oblanceoloid, 1.2–1.5 × 0.4–0.5 mm. |
1–1.9 × 0.6–1.2 mm. |
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2n | = 14. |
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Oenothera canescens |
Oenothera elata |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Aug. | |||||
Habitat | Prairie depressions, playas, margins of ditches, temporary wet areas. | |||||
Elevation | (400–)700–1800 m. ((1300–)2300–5900 ft.) | |||||
Distribution |
CO; KS; NE; NM; OK; TX; WY
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w United States; c United States; Mexico; Central America
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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.) |
Subspecies 3 (2 in the flora). Subspecies elata differs in anthers 7–12 mm, fewer or no pustulate-based hairs, and generally smaller flowers and habit. It ranges from the highlands of central Mexico, including Guanajuato, Hidalgo, México, Michoacán, Puebla, Querétaro, and Veracruz, south to Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama. Oenothera elata has plastome I and a AA genome composition. Onagra kunthiana Spach is a superfluous name that pertains here. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 10. | FNA vol. 10. | ||||
Parent taxa | ||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Gaurella canescens, Megapterium canescens, O. guttulata | |||||
Name authority | Torrey & Frémont in J. C. Fremont: Rep. Exped. Rocky Mts., 315. (1845) | Kunth in A. von Humboldt et al.: Nov. Gen. Sp. 6(fol.): 72; 6(qto.): 90. (1823) | ||||
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