Oenothera elata |
Oenothera lavandulifolia |
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evening primrose, Hooker's evening-primrose, western 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, densely strigillose throughout, sometimes glandular puberulent distally; from a stout taproot. | ||||
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. |
several to many, decumbent to ascending, branched, 4–20(–30) 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. |
0.6–5 × 0.08–0.6 cm, fascicles of small leaves 0.2–1 cm often present in non-flowering axils; petiole 0 cm; blade narrowly lanceolate or narrowly oblanceolate, base attenuate to truncate, sometimes clasping, margins entire or subentire, sometimes revolute, sometimes weakly undulate, apex acute to obtuse. |
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Inflorescences | erect, unbranched. |
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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. |
usually 1 per stem opening per day near sunset; buds with free tips 0.3–3 mm; floral tube 25–60 mm, funnelform in distal 1/2 or less; sepals 8–20 mm; petals yellow, fading pale pink or pale purple, 12–28 mm; filaments 6–12 mm, anthers 5–11 mm, pollen 85–100% fertile; style 30–75 mm, stigma yellow, quadrangular, usually exserted beyond anthers. |
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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. |
6–25 × 1–3 mm, hard, promptly dehiscent throughout their length. |
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Seeds | 1–1.9 × 0.6–1.2 mm. |
obovoid, 1.5–2.5 mm. |
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2n | = 14. |
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Oenothera elata |
Oenothera lavandulifolia |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–Aug. | |||||
Habitat | Local and sparse, on sandy and rocky, calcareous soil, high plains, mountains, often with Artemisia tridentata, Cercocarpus, Juniperus, Pinus edulis, or P. monophylla, sometimes in lower zones with Larrea, or in higher zones with P. ponderosa. | |||||
Elevation | 600–2800 m. (2000–9200 ft.) | |||||
Distribution |
w United States; c United States; Mexico; Central America
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AZ; CO; KS; NE; NM; OK; SD; TX; WY; Mexico (Nuevo León) |
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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.) |
Oenothera lavandulifolia is known from southern Fall River County, South Dakota, southeastern Wyoming, and far western Nebraska, through western Kansas, Colorado, eastern and southern Utah, northwestern Oklahoma, and the Texas Panhandle to trans-Pecos Texas, central New Mexico, northern and central Arizona, and eastern Nevada. It also occurs in Nuevo León, Mexico, and may be more widespread in northern Mexico. H. F. Towner (1977) found that O. lavandulifolia is self-incompatible and vespertine. (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 | Calylophus hartwegii subsp. lavandulifolius, C. hartwegii var. lavandulifolius, C. lavandulifolius, Galpinsia lavandulifolia, G. lavandulifolia var. glandulosa, O. hartwegii var. lavandulifolia, O. lavandulifolia var. glandulosa | |||||
Name authority | Kunth in A. von Humboldt et al.: Nov. Gen. Sp. 6(fol.): 72; 6(qto.): 90. (1823) | Torrey & A. Gray: Fl. N. Amer. 1: 501. (1840) — (as lavandulaefolia) | ||||
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