Oenothera gayleana |
Oenothera arizonica |
|
---|---|---|
|
California evening primrose |
|
Habit | Herbs perennial, sometimes suffrutescent, usually strigillose, sometimes glabrous; from a stout taproot. | Herbs winter-annual, younger parts sparsely to densely strigillose and sparsely to densely hirsute, older stems glabrate; from a taproot. |
Stems | many, ascending to erect, branched from base, 15–30(–40) cm. |
ascending to erect, with decumbent branches, thickened at base, tapering toward apex, 10–35(–60) cm. |
Leaves | 2.5–3.5 × 0.1–0.2 cm, rarely fascicles of small leaves present in non-flowering axils; petiole 0–0.1 cm; blade linear to narrowly linear-lanceolate, folded lengthwise, base long-attenuate, margins subentire or serrulate, apex acute. |
in a basal rosette and cauline, basal 5–10(–26) × 0.6–1.5(–3.5) cm, cauline 5–8(–15.5) × 1–2 cm; petiole 0–12 cm; blade lanceolate to oblanceolate, margins pinnatifid or sometimes coarsely serrate. |
Flowers | opening near sunrise; buds with free tips 0–0.5 mm; floral tube 7 mm; sepals 4–6 mm, midribs keeled; petals yellow, fading yellow to orange, 15–20 mm; antisepalous filaments 5 mm, antipetalous filaments 2 mm, anthers 3–4 mm, pollen 90–100% fertile; style 10 mm, stigma discoid to quadrangular, exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. |
1–several opening per day near sunset; buds nodding, weakly quadrangular, without free tips; floral tube 26–31 mm; sepals 19–26 mm, conspicuously maroon-spotted, each spot at base of a long hair; petals white, fading pink to deep pink, broadly obovate or obcordate, 16–26(–36) mm; filaments 9–15 mm, anthers 7–9 mm; style 45–50 mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. |
Capsules | 18–20 × 2 mm, hard, dehiscent 1/2 their length, often tardily dehiscent throughout their length. |
spreading, woody in age, curved upward, or distal end recurved, cylindrical, obtusely 4-angled, especially toward base, tapering gradually from base to apex, 30–80 × 2.5–3.5 mm; sessile. |
Seeds | oblanceoloid, 1–1.8 mm, sharply angled, apex truncate. |
numerous, in 1 row per locule, light brown to yellowish brown with dark purple splotches, obovoid, 1.6–2 mm. |
2n | = 14. |
= 14. |
Oenothera gayleana |
Oenothera arizonica |
|
Phenology | Flowering May–Sep. | Flowering (Oct–)Feb–May. |
Habitat | Gypsum outcrops. | Gravelly or sandy soil, along watercourses, disturbed sites. |
Elevation | 500–1400 m. (1600–4600 ft.) | 200–1400 m. (700–4600 ft.) |
Distribution |
NM; TX |
AZ; Mexico (Sonora) |
Discussion | Oenothera gayleana is a recently discovered gypsum endemic known only from scattered outcrops from De Baca and Eddy counties in New Mexico, and Culberson County in Texas. When published, the delimitation of O. gayleana included populations in Collinsworth and Dickens counties in the Texas panhandle, and adjacent Harmon County in Oklahoma. Subsequent study (B. Cooper et al., unpubl.) has determined they are actually O. serrulata. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Oenothera arizonica occurs in southern Arizona from Maricopa and Yuma counties to Cochise County, and from scattered localities in northern Sonora, Mexico, including Cerro Tepopa, Puerto Libertad, and Tastiota. The populations from southwestern Arizona (Yuma County) southward to Sonora often grow on low dunes. Populations from sand dunes in Yuma County, Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, appear to be a large phenotype of Oenothera arizonica that differ from all other specimens in the size of vegetative parts and flowers, and comprise all of the atypical measurements given in the description. Oenothera arizonica typically grows on dunes in Sonora, but rarely so in Arizona. Populations growing on dunes should be studied further and compared to non-dune populations in the northern and eastern portion of the range. Oenothera arizonica is self-compatible (W. L. Wagner et al. 2007; K. E. Theiss et al. 2010). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 10. | FNA vol. 10. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | O. deltoides var. arizonica, O. avita subsp. arizonica, O. californica subsp. arizonica | |
Name authority | B. L. Turner & M. J. Moore: Phytologia 96: 200, figs. 1, 2. (2014) | (Munz) W. L. Wagner: Novon 8: 308. (1998) |
Web links |