Oenothera elata
Onagraceae subfam. onagroideae
evening primrose, Hooker's evening-primrose, western evening primrose
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.
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.
stipules present or absent.
erect, unbranched.
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.
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.
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.
1–1.9 × 0.6–1.2 mm.
Oenothera elata
Onagraceae subfam. onagroideae
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.)
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.)
1. Plants strigillose, usually also villous, with appressed or spreading hairs, sometimes these with red-pustulate bases, distally sometimes also glandular puberulent; buds green to yellowish green, red-striped, or sometimes red throughout; anthers 8–15(–20) mm. | subsp. hirsutissima |
1. Plants strigillose, also villous with appressed or spreading hairs, usually these with conspicuous red-pustulate bases, also glandular puberulent; buds flushed with red; anthers 12–23 mm. | subsp. hookeri |
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CA, 
OR, 
WA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos,
Flora NW, 
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USDA Plants Database- LBJ Wildflower Center
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