Flora of North America species comparison

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Oenothera deltoides

Onagraceae subfam. onagroideae

basket evening-primrose, birdcage evening primrose, desert lantern, devil's lantern, dune primrose, hairy evening primrose, lion-in-a-cage
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.
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.

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.

stipules present or absent.
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.

floral tube present or, rarely, absent;

sepals 2 or 4 (very rarely 3), deciduous with floral tube, petals, and stamens;

petals yellow, white, pink, red, rarely in combination.
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.

Seeds

numerous, in 1 row per locule, buff with dark spots or black, narrowly obovoid, 1.5–2.8 mm.

xI> = 7, 10, 11, 15, 18.

Oenothera deltoides

Onagraceae subfam. onagroideae
Distribution
from USDA
w United States; nw Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
North America; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies; Eurasia; Pacific Islands (New Zealand, Society Islands); Australia
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.)

Genera 21, species 582 (16 genera, 246 species in the flora).

Onagroideae encompass the main lineage of the family, after the early branching of Ludwigia (R. A. Levin et al. 2003, 2004). This large and diverse lineage is distinguished by the presence of a floral tube beyond the apex of the ovary; sepals deciduous with the floral tube, petals, and stamens; pollen shed in monads (or tetrads in Chylismia sect. Lignothera and all but one species of Epilobium); ovular vascular system exclusively transseptal (R. H. Eyde 1981); ovule archesporium multicellular (H. Tobe and P. H. Raven 1996); and change in base chromosome number from x = 8 in Ludwigia to x = 10 or x = 11 at the base of Onagroideae (Raven 1979; Levin et al. 2003). Molecular work (Levin et al. 2003, 2004) substantially supports the traditional tribal classification (P. A. Munz 1965; Raven 1979, 1988); tribes are recognized to delimit major branches within the phylogeny of Onagroideae, where the branches comprise strongly supported monophyletic groups of one or more genera.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Herbs perennial, from long, fleshy roots; stems not thickened at base, branches erect or ascending, not encircling stems in older plants.
subsp. howellii
1. Herbs annual or short-lived perennial from a taproot; stems usually thickened at base, branches ascending or decumbent, often encircling stems in older plants.
→ 2
2. Flower buds fluted or strongly quadrangular in distal 1/2, without free tips, villous with curly hairs, sometimes glabrous; leaf blade margins sinuate-dentate to pinnatifid; petals 15–25(–30) mm; capsules 15–25(–30) mm.
subsp. piperi
2. Flower buds weakly or strongly quadrangular in distal 1/2, with free tips 0–3 mm, strigillose, sparsely to moderately villous, or glabrous; leaf blade margins sinuate-dentate or subentire, rarely pinnatifid; petals 15–44 mm; capsules 40–80 mm.
→ 3
3. Flower buds with free tips 1–3 mm, quadrangular in distal 1/2; plants strigillose, especially distally.
subsp. ambigua
3. Flower buds with free tips 0–1.5 mm, weakly quadrangular in distal 1/2; plants glabrous, villous, or strigillose.
→ 4
4. Herbs annual, strigillose, sometimes also villous; capsules 2–3.5 mm diam.; flower buds with free tips 0–1.5 mm.
subsp. deltoides
4. Herbs short-lived perennial or some­times annual, glabrous or sparsely villous, rarely also strigillose; capsules 3–5 mm diam.; flower buds without free tips.
subsp. cognata
Source FNA vol. 10. FNA vol. 10.
Parent taxa Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Oenothera > sect. Anogra Onagraceae
Sibling taxa
O. acutissima, O. albicaulis, O. argillicola, O. arida, O. arizonica, O. biennis, O. boquillensis, O. brachycarpa, O. calcicola, O. californica, O. canescens, O. capillifolia, O. cavernae, O. cespitosa, O. cinerea, O. clelandii, O. coloradensis, O. cordata, O. coronopifolia, O. coryi, O. curtiflora, O. curtissii, O. demareei, O. dodgeniana, O. drummondii, O. elata, O. engelmannii, O. falfurriae, O. filiformis, O. filipes, O. flava, O. fruticosa, O. gaura, O. gayleana, O. glaucifolia, O. glazioviana, O. grandiflora, O. grandis, O. harringtonii, O. hartwegii, O. havardii, O. heterophylla, O. hispida, O. howardii, O. humifusa, O. jamesii, O. kunthiana, O. laciniata, O. lavandulifolia, O. lindheimeri, O. linifolia, O. longissima, O. macrocarpa, O. mckelveyae, O. mexicana, O. nealleyi, O. neomexicana, O. nutans, O. nuttallii, O. oakesiana, O. organensis, O. pallida, O. parviflora, O. patriciae, O. perennis, O. pilosella, O. platanorum, O. podocarpa, O. primiveris, O. psammophila, O. pubescens, O. rhombipetala, O. riparia, O. rosea, O. serrulata, O. sessilis, O. simulans, O. sinuosa, O. spachiana, O. speciosa, O. stricta, O. suffrutescens, O. suffulta, O. tetraptera, O. texensis, O. toumeyi, O. triangulata, O. triloba, O. tubicula, O. villosa, O. wolfii, O. xylocarpa
Subordinate taxa
O. deltoides subsp. ambigua, O. deltoides subsp. cognata, O. deltoides subsp. deltoides, O. deltoides subsp. howellii, O. deltoides subsp. piperi
Synonyms Anogra deltoides
Name authority Torrey & Frémont in J. C. Frémont: Rep. Exped. Rocky Mts., 315. (1845) W. L. Wagner & Hoch: Syst. Bot. Monogr. 83: 41. (2007)
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).



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