Oenothera capillifolia |
Oenothera canescens |
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beakpod evening primrose, spotted evening-primrose |
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Habit | Herbs perennial (short-lived or, sometimes, suffrutescent) or annual, glabrous or strigillose; from a stout taproot. | Herbs low, forming clumps 10–50 cm diam., densely strigillose throughout; from a taproot, lateral roots producing adventitious shoots. | ||||
Stems | 1–many, weakly decumbent to ascending or erect, unbranched to moderately branched, (10–)25–80 cm. |
many-branched from base, leafy, (10–)15–25(–38) cm. |
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Leaves | 1–9 × (0.1–)0.3–1 cm, sometimes fascicles of small leaves to 2 cm present in non-flowering axils; petiole 0–0.6 cm; blade linear to narrowly lanceolate or oblanceolate, often folded lengthwise, usually not much reduced distally, proximalmost leaves sometimes spatulate, base attenuate, margins subentire or serrulate or spinulose-serrate, apex acute. |
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. |
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Flowers | opening at sunrise; buds with free tips 0–4 mm; floral tube 5–20 mm; sepals 4–12 mm, midribs keeled; petals yellow, fading orangish to purplish, 6–25 mm; antisepalous filaments 2–8 mm, antipetalous filaments 1–4 mm, anthers 2–7 mm, pollen 90–100% fertile; style 9–30 mm, stigma sometimes blue-black, discoid to quadrangular, exserted beyond anthers. |
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. |
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Capsules | 10–35 × 1–2 mm, hard, dehiscent 1/2 their length, often tardily dehiscent throughout their length. |
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. |
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Seeds | obovoid, 1–1.8 mm, sharply angled, apex truncate. |
asymmetrically cuneiform or oblanceoloid, 1.2–1.5 × 0.4–0.5 mm. |
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2n | = 14. |
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Oenothera capillifolia |
Oenothera canescens |
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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 | c United States; sc United States; n Mexico |
CO; KS; NE; NM; OK; TX; WY
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Discussion | Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora). Oenothera capillifolia is self-incompatible (H. F. Towner 1977). Oenothera berlandieri (Spach) Steudel 1841, not D. Dietrich 1840, is superfluous and cannot be used in Oenothera when transferred from Calylophus, and pertains here. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 10. | FNA vol. 10. | ||||
Parent taxa | Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Oenothera > sect. Calylophus > subsect. Calylophus | Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Oenothera > sect. Gauropsis | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Meriolix capillifolia | Gaurella canescens, Megapterium canescens, O. guttulata | ||||
Name authority | Scheele: Linnaea 21: 576. (1848) | Torrey & Frémont in J. C. Fremont: Rep. Exped. Rocky Mts., 315. (1845) | ||||
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