Oenothera gayleana |
Oenothera calcicola |
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Texas beeblossom |
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Habit | Herbs perennial, sometimes suffrutescent, usually strigillose, sometimes glabrous; from a stout taproot. | Herbs perennial, clumped, usually sparsely strigillose, rarely glabrate or sparsely villous, hairs erect, sometimes sparsely glandular puberulent distally; from twisted, woody rootstock. |
Stems | many, ascending to erect, branched from base, 15–30(–40) cm. |
erect, branched below and just above ground, branched also proximal to inflorescences, (40–)60–250 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 3–13 × 0.6–2.5 cm, blade spatulate to oblanceolate, cauline (1–)2.5–12 × 0.1–1 cm, blade linear to narrowly oblanceolate, margins slightly to conspicuously sinuate-dentate. |
Inflorescences | slender. |
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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. |
4-merous, zygomorphic, opening near sunset; floral tube 3–9 mm; sepals 6–12 mm; petals white, fading dark pink to red, slightly unequal, elliptic-obovate, 7–11 mm; stamens presented in lower 1/2 of flower, filaments 3–7 mm, anthers 2.5–5 mm, pollen 90–100% fertile; style 9.5–19 mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. |
Capsules | 18–20 × 2 mm, hard, dehiscent 1/2 their length, often tardily dehiscent throughout their length. |
lanceoloid to narrowly ovoid, narrowly 4-winged, 7–12 × 1.5–2.5 mm, tapered to a sterile stipe 2–5 mm. |
Seeds | oblanceoloid, 1–1.8 mm, sharply angled, apex truncate. |
(2 or)3 or 4(or 5), light brown or reddish brown, 1.5–2.5 × 0.8–1.3 mm. |
2n | = 14. |
= 14. |
Oenothera gayleana |
Oenothera calcicola |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Sep. | Flowering Apr–May. |
Habitat | Gypsum outcrops. | Dry limestone, gypsum, or caliche soil, slopes. |
Elevation | 500–1400 m. (1600–4600 ft.) | 400–1800(–2100) m. (1300–5900(–6900) ft.) |
Distribution |
NM; TX |
TX; Mexico (Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas) |
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 calcicola occurs at mostly higher elevations and more montane areas than other species of subsect. Stipogaura, from the southern Trans-Pecos and Edwards Plateau regions of Texas southward into northern Mexico. P. H. Raven and D. P. Gregory (1972[1973]) determined O. calcicola to be self-incompatible. It is known to form hybrids with O. suffrutescens. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 10. | FNA vol. 10. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Gaura calcicola | |
Name authority | B. L. Turner & M. J. Moore: Phytologia 96: 200, figs. 1, 2. (2014) | (P. H. Raven & D. P. Gregory) W. L. Wagner & Hoch: Syst. Bot. Monogr. 83: 211. (2007) |
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