Oenothera harringtonii |
Oenothera arizonica |
|
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Colorado Springs evening primrose |
California evening primrose |
|
Habit | Herbs robust spring annual or, rarely, surviving a second year, caulescent, hirtellous, also glandular puberulent; from stout taproot. | Herbs winter-annual, younger parts sparsely to densely strigillose and sparsely to densely hirsute, older stems glabrate; from a taproot. |
Stems | ascending to erect, stout, unbranched or with lateral stems from basal rosette, densely leafy, 15–30 cm. |
ascending to erect, with decumbent branches, thickened at base, tapering toward apex, 10–35(–60) cm. |
Leaves | 10–14(–14.5) × 1.5–2.3(–3) cm; petiole 4.3–6.6 cm; blade narrowly oblanceolate, margins irregularly and coarsely dentate, 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 | usually 5–10 per stem opening per day near sunset, with heavy, sweet scent; buds erect; floral tube 31–60 mm; sepals 17–26 mm; petals white, fading pale pink, 20–26 mm; filaments 11–16 mm, anthers 8–11 mm; style 65–96 mm, stigma 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 | straight, lanceoloid, obtusely 4-angled, (21–)25–30(–35) × (5–)6–8 mm, tapering to a sterile beak 6–8 mm, dehiscent 1/2–2/3 their length, valve margins with 5–8 conspicuous, irregular tubercles, sometimes 2 or more coalesced into a sinuate ridge, also with conspicuous medial ridge throughout; pedicel 0.5–1 mm. |
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 | numerous, usually in 2 distinct rows per locule, sometimes rows partially overlapping, narrowly obovoid, 2.1–2.3 × 1–1.3 mm, embryo slightly less than 1/2 seed volume, surface appearing finely striate but papillose under magnification; seed collar with membrane intact at maturity, membrane rarely splitting and separating from collar, margin entire. |
numerous, in 1 row per locule, light brown to yellowish brown with dark purple splotches, obovoid, 1.6–2 mm. |
2n | = 14. |
= 14. |
Oenothera harringtonii |
Oenothera arizonica |
|
Phenology | Flowering May–Jun. | Flowering (Oct–)Feb–May. |
Habitat | On compacted, silty clay to looser rocky and sandy soil in open grassland. | Gravelly or sandy soil, along watercourses, disturbed sites. |
Elevation | 1400–1900 m. (4600–6200 ft.) | 200–1400 m. (700–4600 ft.) |
Distribution |
CO |
AZ; Mexico (Sonora) |
Discussion | Oenothera harringtonii is known only from southeastern Colorado from western El Paso and eastern Fremont counties, southeast through Pueblo to Otero counties, and south to Las Animas County; it may also occur in adjacent Colfax and Union counties in New Mexico but has not been collected there. Oenothera harringtonii is self-incompatible (W. L. Wagner et al. 1985; Wagner 2005). (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 | W. L. Wagner, Stockhouse & W. M. Klein: Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 70: 195. (1983) | (Munz) W. L. Wagner: Novon 8: 308. (1998) |
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