Oenothera deltoides |
Oenothera howardii |
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basket evening-primrose, birdcage evening primrose, desert lantern, devil's lantern, dune primrose, hairy evening primrose, lion-in-a-cage |
Howard's 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, moderately to densely strigillose and glandular puberulent, sometimes also sparsely to moderately hirsute; from a 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, leafy, sometimes densely so, 0–10(–30) 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, (6–)8.5–17(–23) × (0.5–)1–2(–3) cm; petiole 2–7.5 cm; blade usually oblanceolate, elliptic to narrowly oblong, rarely lanceolate, margins often undulate, entire or remotely and irregularly pinnately lobed mostly in proximal 1/2, rarely more regularly pinnately lobed and lobing extending to distal 1/2, sinuses usually extending less than 1/2 to midrib, lobes triangular to oblong or linear, (1–)4–9(–13) mm, apex acute to obtuse. |
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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 or 2, rarely more, opening per day near sunset, strongly and sweetly scented; buds with unequal free tips 1–3(–4) mm; floral tube (43–)60–110(–125) mm; sepals (30–)35–60(–80) mm; petals brilliant yellow, fading deep red, drying deep reddish purple to reddish brown, usually broadly obovate, rarely subrhombic, (30–)40–60(–73) mm, sometimes with a terminal tooth; filaments (19–)25–38 mm, anthers 10–17 mm; style(90–)110–145(–165) 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, ovoid, narrowly ovoid, or narrowly lanceoloid to broadly ellipsoid, winged, wings (2–)4–7(–11) mm wide, body (20–)25–50(–80) × 4–6 mm, dehiscent 1/4–1/3 their length; pedicel 2–6 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. |
numerous, usually in 1 row per locule, rarely in 2 rows toward base, obovoid to subcuboid, 3–8 × 2.5–3.5 mm. |
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2n | = 28, 42, 56. |
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Oenothera deltoides |
Oenothera howardii |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Jul. | |||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Open or rocky areas, in shale, fine-textured sandstones, clays, gypsum, or limestone from High Plains grasslands, open sites in pinyon-juniper woodlands, ponderosa pine-Douglas fir forests. | |||||||||||||||||
Elevation | (1000–)1500–2300(–3000) m. ((3300–)4900–7500(–9800) ft.) | |||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
w United States; nw Mexico
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CO; KS; NV; UT; 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.) |
Oenotherahowardii is known from three disjunct areas: three collections on the High Plains (Baca and Otero counties, Colorado, and Hamilton County, Kansas); open yucca-juniper grassland, rocky slopes or disturbed areas on shale substrates along the Colorado counties of Boulder, Denver, Jefferson, and Larimer, and just over the state line in Wyoming; and, common to scattered, mostly on rocky slopes but also in shaded canyon sites on fine-textured red sandstones, clays, gypsum, chalky white degraded limestone or limestone in pinyon-juniper woodland to ponderosa pine-Douglas fir forest in southern Utah and eastern Nevada. A. Nelson intended to publish Lavauxia howardii as a new combination and base it on Oenothera howardii M. E. Jones (1893), which was not validly published at the time, but inadvertently published L. howardii as a new species. Oenothera howardii (A. Nelson) W. L. Wagner is an isonym. (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 | Lavauxiahowardii a. | ||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Torrey & Frémont in J. C. Frémont: Rep. Exped. Rocky Mts., 315. (1845) | (A. Nelson) M. E. Jones ex Prain in B. D. Jackson et al.: Index Kew., suppl. 3: 121. (1908) — (as howardi) | ||||||||||||||||
Web links |