Oenothera deltoides |
Oenothera coloradensis |
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basket evening-primrose, birdcage evening primrose, desert lantern, devil's lantern, dune primrose, hairy evening primrose, lion-in-a-cage |
Colorado beeblossom |
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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 monocarpic perennial, strigillose proximally, short-hirtellous and strigillose distally, leaves sometimes glabrate; from stout, fleshy taproot. | ||||||||||||||||
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. |
1–few-branched from base, 50–80(–100) 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 and cauline, basal 4–18 × 1.5–4 cm, blade very narrowly elliptic, lanceolate, or oblanceolate; cauline 5–13 × 1–4 cm, blade narrowly elliptic, narrowly lanceolate, or narrowly oblanceolate, margins subentire or repand-denticulate. |
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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. |
4-merous, zygomorphic, opening at sunset; floral tube 8–12 mm; sepals 9.5–13 mm; petals white, fading pink, rhombic-obovate, 7–12 mm; filaments 6.5–9 mm, anthers 2.5–4 mm, pollen 90–100% fertile; style 19–25 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. |
ellipsoid or ovoid, sharply 4-angled, with fairly deep furrows alternating with angles, 6–8.5 × 2–3 mm; sessile. |
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Seeds | numerous, in 1 row per locule, buff with dark spots or black, narrowly obovoid, 1.5–2.8 mm. |
1–4, yellowish to light brown, 2–3 × 1 mm. |
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2n | = 14. |
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Oenothera deltoides |
Oenothera coloradensis |
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Phenology | Flowering Jul–Sep. | |||||||||||||||||
Habitat | In wet meadow vegetation of North and South Platte River watersheds on high plains, sloping floodplains, drainage basins in heavy soil. | |||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 1500–2000 m. (4900–6600 ft.) | |||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
w United States; nw Mexico
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CO; NE; WY |
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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.) |
Oenothera coloradensis is currently known from fewer than two dozen populations from southern Laramie and Platte counties in Wyoming, northern Weld County, Colorado, formerly near Fort Collins, Larimer County, Colorado, and in western Kimball County, Nebraska. It is federally listed as a threatened species in the United States. The primary threats are agricultural use of habitat, herbicide spraying to control weed species, and livestock trampling and grazing (see W. L. Wagner et al. 2013). Recent study by K. N. Krakos (unpubl.) has determined this species to be self-compatible. P. H. Raven and D. P. Gregory (1972[1973]) described this species as glandular puberulent in inflorescence, which was repeated in the recent revised taxonomy (Wagner et al.); however, examination of specimens show that P. A. Munz (1965) was correct in describing the pubescence of the inflorescence as non-glandular. (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. Gaura > subsect. Gaura | ||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Anogra deltoides | Gaura coloradensis, G. neomexicana subsp. coloradensis, G. neomexicana var. coloradensis | ||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Torrey & Frémont in J. C. Frémont: Rep. Exped. Rocky Mts., 315. (1845) | (Rydberg) W. L. Wagner & Hoch: Syst. Bot. Monogr. 83: 211. (2007) | ||||||||||||||||
Web links |