Oenothera gayleana |
Oenothera curtissii |
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Curtiss' evening primrose |
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Habit | Herbs perennial, sometimes suffrutescent, usually strigillose, sometimes glabrous; from a stout taproot. | Herbs biennial or short-lived perennial, densely to sparsely strigillose, sometimes also sparsely glandular puberulent distally. |
Stems | many, ascending to erect, branched from base, 15–30(–40) cm. |
sometimes with lateral branches arisingobliquely from rosette, 30–80 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 7–17 × 0.5–1.5 cm, cauline 2–8 × 0.5–1.5 cm; blade narrowly oblanceolate, gradually narrowly elliptic to narrowly oblong distally, margins lobed to remotely dentate or subentire; bracts slightly longer than capsule they subtend. |
Inflorescences | open, lax, without lateral branches, mature buds usually not overtopping spike apex. |
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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. |
1 or 2 per spike opening per day near sunset; buds erect, with free tips erect to spreading, 0.3–0.8 mm; floral tube slightly curved upward to straight, 23–37 mm; sepals 7–13 mm; petals yellow, broadly elliptic to rhombic-ovate, 8–17 mm; filaments 6–10 mm, anthers 1.5–4 mm, pollen ca. 50% fertile; style 30–45 mm, stigma surrounded by anthers at anthesis. |
Capsules | 18–20 × 2 mm, hard, dehiscent 1/2 their length, often tardily dehiscent throughout their length. |
narrowly lanceoloid, 10–25 ×2–3 mm. |
Seeds | oblanceoloid, 1–1.8 mm, sharply angled, apex truncate. |
brown, sometimes flecked with darkred spots, ellipsoid, 1–1.3 × 0.5–0.7 mm. |
2n | = 14. |
= 14. |
Oenothera gayleana |
Oenothera curtissii |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Sep. | Flowering Jun–Sep. |
Habitat | Gypsum outcrops. | Dry places, pine-oak woods, fields, roadsides, sandy soil. |
Elevation | 500–1400 m. (1600–4600 ft.) | 0–60 m. (0–200 ft.) |
Distribution |
NM; TX |
AL; FL; GA; SC |
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 curtissii is a PTH species and forms a ring of 14 chromosomes in meiosis, and is self-compatible and autogamous (W. Dietrich and W. L. Wagner 1988). It is known only from northern Florida, adjacent southern Georgia and southeastern Alabama, and one disjunct locality in South Carolina (Allendale County). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 10. | FNA vol. 10. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | O. heterophylla var. curtissii | |
Name authority | B. L. Turner & M. J. Moore: Phytologia 96: 200, figs. 1, 2. (2014) | Small: Fl. S.E. U.S. ed. 2, 1353. (1913) |
Web links |