Oenothera howardii |
Oenothera elata |
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Howard's evening-primrose |
evening primrose, Hooker's evening-primrose, western evening primrose |
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Habit | Herbs acaulescent or sometimes caulescent, moderately to densely strigillose and glandular puberulent, sometimes also sparsely to moderately hirsute; from a taproot, sometimes lateral roots producing adventitious shoots. | Herbs biennial or short-lived perennial, densely strigillose and either sparsely or moderately villous, with appressed or spreading hairs (sometimes with red-pustulate bases), distally sometimes also glandular puberulent. | ||||
Stems | (when present) ascending, longer ones becoming decumbent, leafy, sometimes densely so, 0–10(–30) cm. |
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. |
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Leaves | in a basal rosette, sometimes also cauline, (6–)8.5–17(–23) × (0.5–)1–2(–3) cm; petiole 2–7.5 cm; blade usually oblanceolate, elliptic to narrowly oblong, rarely lanceolate, margins often undulate, entire or remotely and irregularly pinnately lobed mostly in proximal 1/2, rarely more regularly pinnately lobed and lobing extending to distal 1/2, sinuses usually extending less than 1/2 to midrib, lobes triangular to oblong or linear, (1–)4–9(–13) mm, apex acute to obtuse. |
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. |
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Inflorescences | erect, unbranched. |
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Flowers | usually 1 or 2, rarely more, opening per day near sunset, strongly and sweetly scented; buds with unequal free tips 1–3(–4) mm; floral tube (43–)60–110(–125) mm; sepals (30–)35–60(–80) mm; petals brilliant yellow, fading deep red, drying deep reddish purple to reddish brown, usually broadly obovate, rarely subrhombic, (30–)40–60(–73) mm, sometimes with a terminal tooth; filaments (19–)25–38 mm, anthers 10–17 mm; style(90–)110–145(–165) mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. |
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. |
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Capsules | leathery, ovoid, narrowly ovoid, or narrowly lanceoloid to broadly ellipsoid, winged, wings (2–)4–7(–11) mm wide, body (20–)25–50(–80) × 4–6 mm, dehiscent 1/4–1/3 their length; pedicel 2–6 mm. |
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. |
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Seeds | numerous, usually in 1 row per locule, rarely in 2 rows toward base, obovoid to subcuboid, 3–8 × 2.5–3.5 mm. |
1–1.9 × 0.6–1.2 mm. |
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2n | = 28, 42, 56. |
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Oenothera howardii |
Oenothera elata |
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Phenology | Flowering May–Jul. | |||||
Habitat | Open or rocky areas, in shale, fine-textured sandstones, clays, gypsum, or limestone from High Plains grasslands, open sites in pinyon-juniper woodlands, ponderosa pine-Douglas fir forests. | |||||
Elevation | (1000–)1500–2300(–3000) m. ((3300–)4900–7500(–9800) ft.) | |||||
Distribution |
CO; KS; NV; UT; WY
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w United States; c United States; Mexico; Central America
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Discussion | Oenotherahowardii is known from three disjunct areas: three collections on the High Plains (Baca and Otero counties, Colorado, and Hamilton County, Kansas); open yucca-juniper grassland, rocky slopes or disturbed areas on shale substrates along the Colorado counties of Boulder, Denver, Jefferson, and Larimer, and just over the state line in Wyoming; and, common to scattered, mostly on rocky slopes but also in shaded canyon sites on fine-textured red sandstones, clays, gypsum, chalky white degraded limestone or limestone in pinyon-juniper woodland to ponderosa pine-Douglas fir forest in southern Utah and eastern Nevada. A. Nelson intended to publish Lavauxia howardii as a new combination and base it on Oenothera howardii M. E. Jones (1893), which was not validly published at the time, but inadvertently published L. howardii as a new species. Oenothera howardii (A. Nelson) W. L. Wagner is an isonym. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 10. | FNA vol. 10. | ||||
Parent taxa | Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Oenothera > sect. Megapterium | Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Oenothera > sect. Oenothera > subsect. Oenothera | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Lavauxiahowardii a. | |||||
Name authority | (A. Nelson) M. E. Jones ex Prain in B. D. Jackson et al.: Index Kew., suppl. 3: 121. (1908) — (as howardi) | Kunth in A. von Humboldt et al.: Nov. Gen. Sp. 6(fol.): 72; 6(qto.): 90. (1823) | ||||
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