Oenothera elata |
Oenothera lindheimeri |
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evening primrose, Hooker's evening-primrose, western evening primrose |
Lindheimer's beeblossom |
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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 clumped perennial, villous, usually more densely so proximally, hairs erect or ± appressed on leaf blades, also glandular puberulent distally, rarely glabrate; from 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. |
many from base, ascending or erect, usually branched, 50–150 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, 0.5–9 × 0. |
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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. |
4-merous, zygomorphic, opening at sunrise; floral tube 4–9 mm; sepals 9–17 mm; petals white, fading light or deep pink, rhombic-obovate to elliptic, 10–15 mm; filaments 7–12 mm, anthers 3.5–4.5 mm, pollen 90–100% fertile; style 16–27 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. |
ellipsoid or ovoid, 4-angled, 6–9 × 2–3.5 mm; sessile. |
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Seeds | 1–1.9 × 0.6–1.2 mm. |
1–4, yellowish to light brown, 2–3 × 1–1.5 mm. |
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1 | –1.3 cm; blade narrowly elliptic to narrowly oblanceolate, margins coarsely and remotely serrate. |
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2n | = 14. |
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Oenothera elata |
Oenothera lindheimeri |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–Jul(–Oct). | |||||
Habitat | Black soil in coastal prairies. | |||||
Elevation | 0–100 m. (0–300 ft.) | |||||
Distribution |
w United States; c United States; Mexico; Central America
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LA; TX |
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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 lindheimeri has a fairly narrow distribution and occurs only in Acadia, Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Jefferson Davis, Lafayette, St. Mary, Tangipahoa, and Vermillion parishes in Louisiana, and Brazoria, Brazos, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Hardin, Harris, Jasper, Jefferson, Liberty, Orange, Victoria, and Victoria counties in Texas. P. H. Raven and D. P. Gregory (1972[1973]) found Oenothera lindheimeri to be self-incompatible. It occasionally forms hybrids with O. filiformis. This species is widely cultivated and has many different cultivars. (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 | Gaura lindheimeri, G. filiformis var. munzii | |||||
Name authority | Kunth in A. von Humboldt et al.: Nov. Gen. Sp. 6(fol.): 72; 6(qto.): 90. (1823) | (Engelmann & A. Gray) W. L. Wagner & Hoch: Syst. Bot. Monogr. 83: 213. (2007) | ||||
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