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

Oenothera deltoides subsp. deltoides
Photo is of parent taxon

birdcage evening primrose, desert lantern
Habit Herbs annual, strigillose, sometimes also villous; from a taproot.
Stems

central stem erect, usually thickened, with several leafy, ascending, slender branches from near base, encircling stems in older plants, 20–60(–100) cm.
Leaves

basal and cauline;

blade rhombic-lanceolate, becoming oblanceolate to lanceolate distally, margins usually coarsely sinuate-dentate to subentire, rarely pinnatifid.
Flowers

buds weakly quadrangular, with free tips 0–1.5 mm;

sepals 20–35 mm;

petals 18–44 mm.
Capsules

40–80 × 2–3.5 mm.
2n

= 14.

Oenothera deltoides subsp. deltoides
Phenology Flowering (Mar–)Jun–Jul(–Sep).
Habitat Sandy places, dunes, Mojave and Sonoran deserts.
Elevation -50–1300 m. (-200–4300 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; NV; Mexico (Baja California, Sonora)
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

W. M. Klein (1964) determined most populations of subsp. deltoides that were studied to be self-incompatible, but found a few in Riverside County, California, to be self-compatible. Oenothera kleinii was described from a single, small roadside population near Wolf Creek Pass in Colorado. Subsequent study and discussion with W. A. Weber suggested that this population was not native to the location, but grew there accidently; it has not been collected again in Colorado. Further study of morphological diversity of O. deltoides has shown that the distinguishing characters mentioned when O. kleinii was described, such as longer hairs and larger capsules and seeds, do in fact occur in plants within the natural range of O. deltoides.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 10.
Parent taxa Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Oenothera > sect. Anogra > Oenothera deltoides
Sibling taxa
O. deltoides subsp. ambigua, O. deltoides subsp. cognata, O. deltoides subsp. howellii, O. deltoides subsp. piperi
Synonyms O. deltoides var. cineracea, O. kleinii, O. trichocalyx var. cineracea
Name authority 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