Oenothera deltoides |
Oenothera brachycarpa |
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basket evening-primrose, birdcage evening primrose, desert lantern, devil's lantern, dune primrose, hairy evening primrose, lion-in-a-cage |
shortfruit evening-primrose |
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Habit | Herbs usually winter-annual, sometimes perennial, glabrous, glandular puberulent, strigillose, and/or villous, sometimes more villous distally, hairs sometimes very curly, especially on flower parts; from a taproot or relatively long, fleshy roots. | Herbs acaulescent or sometimes caulescent, strigillose, also hirsute, hairs often with reddish purple pustulate base, glandular puberulent distally; from a woody taproot, sometimes lateral roots producing adventitious shoots. | ||||||||||||||||
Stems | central stem usually erect, usually thickened at base and spongy, branched or unbranched, branches few–several, slender, decumbent to ascending, from base, usually encircling central stem in older plants, 10–40(–100) cm. |
(when present) ascending, longer ones becoming decumbent, usually densely leafy, 0–20(–36) cm. |
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Leaves | in a basal rosette and cauline, rosette usually well developed (except subsp. howellii), basal 5–25 × 1–5 cm, cauline 4–12(–18) × 0.5–4 cm; petiole 1.5–8 cm; blade rhombic-obovate, lanceolate, or oblanceolate, margins subentire, dentate, or pinnatifid. |
in a basal rosette, sometimes also cauline, (3.1–)5–21(–34) × (0.3–)1.5–3.5(–5.3) cm; petiole (0.8–)2.5–11(–15) cm; blade usually lanceolate to elliptic, rhombic-obovate, sometimes suborbicular or linear, usually irregularly pinnatifid, some sinuses extending nearly to midrib, usually with a large terminal lobe (0.1–)1.5–2(–2.4) cm, margins erose, apex acute to obtuse or rounded. |
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Flowers | 1–several opening per day near sunset; buds nodding, weakly or strongly quadrangular or fluted in distal 1/2, with free tips 0–9 mm; floral tube 20–40 mm; sepals (13–)15–35 mm, not spotted; petals white, fading pink to deep pink, broadly obovate or obcordate, 15–44 mm; filaments 8–15 mm, anthers 5–14 mm; style 35–60 mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. |
usually 1–3, rarely more, opening per day near sunset, weakly scented; buds with unequal free tips 1–7 mm; floral tube (90–)120–210(–220) mm; sepals 38–55 mm; petals pale yellow to yellow, fading pale orange to pink, drying lavender to purple, usually broadly rhombic-obovate, sometimes obovate, (38–)45–58(–62) mm, distal margin usually erose; filaments (16–)20–32 mm, anthers (8–)13–21 mm; style (123–)155–240(–255) mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. |
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Capsules | spreading, straight to curved, becoming somewhat woody in age, cylindrical to slightly 4-angled, widest toward base, tapering from base to apex, (15–)30–80 × 1.5–5 mm; sessile. |
leathery or corky, ovoid to narrowly ellipsoid, ± winged, wings 0–3(–5) mm wide, sometimes capsule with corky thickening between wings, then capsule only 4-angled, body (12–)18–40 × 6–10 mm, dehiscent 1/4 their length; pedicel 0–3 mm. |
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Seeds | numerous, in 1 row per locule, buff with dark spots or black, narrowly obovoid, 1.5–2.8 mm. |
usually numerous, in 1 or 2 rows per locule, obovoid to subcuboid, 3–5 × 1.8–2.2 mm. |
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2n | = 14. |
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Oenothera deltoides |
Oenothera brachycarpa |
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Phenology | Flowering Mar–Aug. | |||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Rocky sites, usually on limestone, shale, or gypsum, on igneous substrates from canyons and slopes in Chihuahuan Desert scrub, grasslands, oak-pine-juniper woodlands, open sites in ponderosa pine-Douglas fir forests. | |||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 1000–2700 m. (3300–8900 ft.) | |||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
w United States; nw Mexico
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AZ; NM; TX; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Sonora)
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Discussion | Subspecies 5 (5 in the flora). Oenothera deltoides is self-incompatible or self-compatible (W. M. Klein 1964; W. L. Wagner et al. 2007; K. E. Theiss et al. 2010). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Oenotherabrachycarpa occurs from southeastern Arizona in southern Navajo, southeastern Pima, Graham, Santa Cruz, and Cochise counties, east across southern New Mexico to Val Verde and Pecos counties in trans-Pecos Texas. (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. Anogra | Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Oenothera > sect. Megapterium | ||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Anogra deltoides | Lavauxia brachycarpa, L. graminifolia, L. wrightii, Megapterium brachycarpum, M. brachycarpum var. wrightii, O. australis, O. brachycarpa var. wrightii, O. cespitosa subsp. australis, O. cespitosa var. australis, O. graminifolia, O. wrightii, Pachylophus australis | ||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Torrey & Frémont in J. C. Frémont: Rep. Exped. Rocky Mts., 315. (1845) | A. Gray: Smithsonian Contr. Knowl. 3(5): 70. (1852) | ||||||||||||||||
Web links |