Oenothera humifusa |
Oenothera kunthiana |
|
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seabeach evening-primrose |
Kunth's evening-primrose |
|
Habit | Herbs annual or short-lived perennial, densely strigillose, sometimes also villous, also becoming glandular puberulent distally. | Herbs annual, strigillose and also hirsute; from a slender taproot. |
Stems | erect to decumbent, much branched, 10–50(–90) cm. |
5–40 cm. |
Leaves | in a basal rosette and cauline, basal 4–8 × 0.7–1 cm, cauline 1–7 × 0.3–1.5 cm; blade usually grayish green, narrowly oblong to narrowly elliptic or narrowly obovate, margins remotely shallowly dentate to subentire; bracts spreading, flat. |
1–6 × 0.3–3 cm; petiole 0.1–1.1 cm; blade usually lanceolate to oblanceolate, sometimes elliptic, margins weakly serrate to sinuate-pinnatifid. |
Flowers | usually 1 opening per day near sunset; buds erect, with free tips erect and appressed or slightly spreading, 0.5–2 mm; floral tube 15–35 mm; sepals3–11 mm; petals yellow, very broadly obovate or obcordate, 4.5–16 mm; filaments 4–11 mm, anthers 2–5.5 mm, pollen ca. 50% fertile; style 23–45 mm, stigma surrounded by anthers at anthesis. |
1–3 opening per day near sunset; buds with free tips 0–0.5 mm; floral tube 5–31 mm; sepals 10–27 mm; petals white, fading pink, 8–25 mm; filaments 6–12 mm, anthers 3–5 mm, pollen 35–65% fertile; style 12–30 mm, stigma surrounded by anthers at anthesis. |
Capsules | cylindrical, sometimes slightly enlarged toward apex, 15–45 × 2–3 mm. |
broadly clavate or obovoid, 7–31 ×3–5 mm, winged, wings 0.5–1.5 mm, valve surface with prominent midrib, proximal stipe 3–17 mm; sessile. |
Seeds | usually ellipsoid to broadly ellipsoid, rarely subglobose, 1–2 × 0.5–0.9 mm. |
narrowly obovoid, 0.9–1.2 × 0.4–0.5 mm. |
2n | = 14. |
= 14. |
Oenothera humifusa |
Oenothera kunthiana |
|
Phenology | Flowering Apr–Nov. | Flowering Feb–May. |
Habitat | Dunes, open sandy places along or near Atlantic coast. | Alluvial flats, open areas, sandy soil, weedy sites. |
Elevation | 0–10 m. (0–0 ft.) | 10–1300[–2000] m. (0–4300[–6600] ft.) |
Distribution |
AL; DE; FL; GA; LA; MD; MS; NC; NJ; PA; SC; VA; Dunes; open sandy places along or near Atlantic coast; West Indies (Cuba); Bermuda
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TX; Mexico; Central America; n South America [Introduced widely in temperate Europe, Asia, Pacific Islands (Hawaii), Australia]
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Discussion | Oenothera humifusa 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). The inland collection from Iredell County, North Carolina, presumably represents an introduction. There are two geographically separated morphological forms of O. humifusa. Plants of one form are somewhat decumbent, with subentire cauline leaves and bracts; this form occurs in the southern part of the range. The other form is more upright, with more deeply divided leaves; it occurs from North Carolina northward. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Oenothera kunthiana is a PTH species and forms a ring of 14 chromosomes in meiosis, and is self-compatible and autogamous, common and widespread from sea level to middle elevations in the mountains from southern Texas south throughout Mexico except for Baja California and the tropical lowlands southward to Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica; it was once collected in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Oenothera kunthiana was recently found to be naturalized in the Hawaiian Islands. Oenothera pinnatifida Kunth is a later homonym of O. pinnatifida Nuttall and another later homonym is O. micrantha Walpers, not Hornemann ex Sprengel (1825); they both pertain here. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 10. | FNA vol. 10. |
Parent taxa | Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Oenothera > sect. Oenothera > subsect. Raimannia | Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Oenothera > sect. Leucocoryne |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | O. niveifolia, O. sinuata var. humifusa, Raimannia humifusa | Hartmannia kunthiana, H. domingensis, H. parviflora, O. domingensis, O. fissifolia, O. walpersii |
Name authority | Nuttall: Gen. N. Amer. Pl. 1: 245. (1818) | (Spach) Munz: Amer. J. Bot. 19: 759. (1932) |
Web links |