Oenothera deltoides |
Oenothera deltoides subsp. cognata |
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basket evening-primrose, birdcage evening primrose, desert lantern, devil's lantern, dune primrose, hairy evening primrose, lion-in-a-cage |
desert lantern |
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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 short-lived perennial, sometimes annual, glabrous or sparsely villous, rarely also strigillose; from a 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. |
central stem often thickened near base, branched from base, branches ascending, not encircling stems in older plants, 20–40 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. |
basal and cauline; blade rhombic-lanceolate, becoming oblanceolate to lanceolate distally, margins usually coarsely sinuate-dentate to subentire, rarely pinnatifid. |
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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. |
buds weakly quadrangular, without free tips; sepals 20–35 mm; petals 25–40 mm. |
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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. |
40–60 × 3–5 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. |
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2n | = 14. |
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Oenothera deltoides |
Oenothera deltoides subsp. cognata |
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Phenology | Flowering (Mar–)Jun–Jul(–Sep). | |||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Sandy places. | |||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 30–500 m. (100–1600 ft.) | |||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
w United States; nw Mexico
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CA |
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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.) |
W. M. Klein (1964) determined subsp. cognata to be self-compatible. It is known from the San Joaquin Valley. Some specimens from Contra Costa County at the northern edge of the range of subsp. cognata appear to be somewhat intermediate toward subsp. howelliiin having minute free sepal tips in bud and the plant is more pubescent. (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. Anogra > Oenothera deltoides | ||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Anogra deltoides | O. trichocalyx var. cognata, O. deltoides var. cognata | ||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Torrey & Frémont in J. C. Frémont: Rep. Exped. Rocky Mts., 315. (1845) | (Jepson) W. M. Klein: Aliso 5: 180. (1962) | ||||||||||||||||
Web links |