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high-plains beeblossom

Habit Herbs densely soft-villous, hairs mostly appressed, also strigillose, rarely glandular puberulent, branches of inflorescences glabrous or sparsely glandular puberulent. Herbs (annual or perennial), [shrubs].
Leaves

blade narrowly lanceolate to very narrowly elliptic or linear, sometimes narrowly elliptic to lanceolate or narrowly oblanceolate proximally, margins subentire or shallowly sinuate-dentate, sometimes markedly so.

alternate or basal;

stipules absent.

Flowers

floral tube 2–5 mm;

petals 8.5–13 mm;

style 10–19 mm.

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.

Seeds

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).

2n

= 14.

Oenothera cinerea subsp. cinerea

Onagraceae tribe Onagreae

Phenology Flowering May–Aug.
Habitat Sandy flats and dunes on high plains and rolling plains.
Elevation 700–1700 m. (2300–5600 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CO; KS; NJ; NM; OK; TX
[BONAP county map]
North America; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies
Discussion

Subspecies cinerea is locally escaped in New Jersey. It occurs in northwestern Texas, eastern New Mexico, southeastern-most Colorado, southwestern Kansas(one station farther north, in Ellis County), and the western half of Oklahoma.

(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.)

Source FNA vol. 10. FNA vol. 10.
Parent taxa Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Oenothera > sect. Gaura > subsect. Stipogaura > Oenothera cinerea Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae
Sibling taxa
O. cinerea subsp. parksii
Subordinate taxa
Synonyms Gaura villosa, G. villosa var. arenicola
Name authority unknown Dumortier: Fl. Belg., 89. (1827)
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