Oenothera elata |
Oenothera fruticosa |
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evening primrose, Hooker's evening-primrose, western evening primrose |
narrow-leaf evening-primrose |
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Habit | Herbs biennial or short-lived perennial, densely strigillose and either sparsely or moderately villous, with appressed or spreading hairs (sometimes with red-pustulate bases), distally sometimes also glandular puberulent. | Herbs perennial, moderately to densely strigillose and/or villous, glandular puberulent, or glabrous; from fibrous roots, not or rarely producing rhizomes. | ||||||||
Stems | erect, green, flushed with red proximally or red throughout, unbranched or branches obliquely arising from rosette and secondary branches arising from main stem, 30–250 cm. |
erect to decumbent, branched or unbranched, (10–)30–80 cm. |
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Leaves | in a basal rosette and cauline, basal 10–43 × 1.2–4(–6) cm, cauline 4–25 × 1–2.5(–4) cm; blade dull green to grayish green, rarely red, narrowly oblanceolate or oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic or narrowly lanceolate, margins usually flat, rarely undulate, bluntly dentate or subentire, teeth sometimes widely spaced, proximal blades sometimes sinuate-dentate toward base; bracts persistent. |
in a basal rosette and cauline, rosette usually withered by anthesis, surfaces sometimes glaucous, especially abaxially, basal 3–12 × 0.5–3 cm, petiole 1–4 cm, blade oblanceolate to obovate, margins subentire, dentate, or denticulate, sometimes undulate; cauline 2–6(–11) × (0.1–)0.5–2(–5) cm, petiole 0.1–2(–6) cm, blade linear, lanceolate to oblanceolate, narrowly elliptic, or ovate, margins subentire or dentate or denticulate, sometimes undulate. |
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Inflorescences | erect, unbranched. |
usually erect, rarely nodding, flowers in axils of distalmost few nodes. |
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Flowers | opening near sunset; buds erect, 6–10 mm diam., with free tips terminal, erect, 1–7 mm; floral tube (20–)30–45(–50) mm; sepals yellowish green, red-striped or strongly flushed with red, 27–50 mm; petals yellow to pale yellow, fading orange or pale yellow, very broadly obcordate, (25–)30–47(–55) mm; filaments 17–25 mm, anthers 8–23 mm, pollen 90–100% fertile; style 50–90 mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. |
opening near sunrise; buds with free tips 0.5–8(–13) mm, connivent, sometimes spreading; floral tube 5–20 mm; sepals 5–20 mm; petals pale to bright yellow, fading pale pink, orangish pink, or yellow, (8–)15–25(–30) mm; filaments 5–15 mm, anthers 4–7 mm, pollen 85–100% fertile; style 12–20 mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. |
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Capsules | erect or slightly spreading, dull green or gray-green when dry, narrowly lanceoloid, 20–65 × 4–7 mm, free tips of valves 0.5–2.5 mm. |
clavate to oblong-clavate or oblong-ellipsoid, 4-angled to 4-winged, (5–)10–17(–20) × (2–)3–4(–6) mm, stipe 0.1–10 mm; sessile. |
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Seeds | 1–1.9 × 0.6–1.2 mm. |
1 × 0.5 mm. |
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Oenothera elata |
Oenothera fruticosa |
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Distribution |
w United States; c United States; Mexico; Central America
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e North America; c North America
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Discussion | Subspecies 3 (2 in the flora). Subspecies elata differs in anthers 7–12 mm, fewer or no pustulate-based hairs, and generally smaller flowers and habit. It ranges from the highlands of central Mexico, including Guanajuato, Hidalgo, México, Michoacán, Puebla, Querétaro, and Veracruz, south to Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama. Oenothera elata has plastome I and a AA genome composition. Onagra kunthiana Spach is a superfluous name that pertains here. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora). Oenothera fruticosa as delimited here is a polymorphic species. Previous classification of this group has undergone numerous reorganizations due to the difficulties in separating populations into discrete morphological taxa. In the past it has most frequently been treated as two species, O. fruticosa and O. tetragona Roth, often with a dozen or more infraspecific taxa recognized. The broad delimitation of G. B. Straley (1977) is followed here with one species consisting of two subspecies that appear to intergrade extensively across a wide area of overlap. Straley determined O. fruticosa to be self-incompatible and polyploid. (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 | ||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | Kneiffia fruticosa | |||||||||
Name authority | Kunth in A. von Humboldt et al.: Nov. Gen. Sp. 6(fol.): 72; 6(qto.): 90. (1823) | Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 346. (1753) | ||||||||
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