Oenothera kunthiana |
Oenothera cespitosa |
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Kunth's evening-primrose |
fragrant evening-primrose, tuft evening-primrose |
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Habit | Herbs annual, strigillose and also hirsute; from a slender taproot. | Herbs perennial, acaulescent or caulescent, usually hirsute or villous, usually also glandular puberulent, or exclusively strigillose, rarely glabrous; from stout taproot, sometimes lateral roots producing adventitious shoots. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stems | 5–40 cm. |
(when present), usually ascending or decumbent, unbranched or branched from near base, 0–40 cm. |
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Leaves | 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. |
1.7–26(–36) × (0.3–)0.5–4.5(–6.5) cm; petiole (0.2–)1.7–11(–14) cm; blade usually oblanceolate to rhombic or spatulate, rarely elliptic, obovate, lanceolate, or linear-oblanceolate, margins irregularly sinuate-dentate, serrate, pinnatifid, lobed, or subentire, apex usually acute to rounded, rarely acuminate. |
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Flowers | 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. |
1–4(–6) per stem opening per day near sunset, with moderate to strong sweet scent with a rubbery background scent; buds usually erect, rarely recurved (during early development); floral tube (20–)40–140(–165) mm; sepals (15–)18–45(–54) mm; petals white, fading rose or rose pink to dark or deep rose purple, or pink to pale or light rose, or lavender, obovate or obcordate, (16–)20–50(–60) mm; filaments (6–)10–30(–35) mm, anthers (6–)9–17(–20) mm; style (45–)60–180(–185) mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. |
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Capsules | 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. |
straight, curved, falcate, or sigmoid, usually cylindrical to lanceoloid or ellipsoid, sometimes ovoid, usually obtusely 4-angled, (10–)13–50(–68) × 4–9 mm, tapering to a sterile beak 6–8 mm, valve margins with rows of distinct tubercles to sinuate or nearly smooth ridges, dehiscent 1/3–7/8 their length; pedicel (0–)1–40(–55) mm. |
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Seeds | narrowly obovoid, 0.9–1.2 × 0.4–0.5 mm. |
numerous in 1 or 2 rows per locule, usually obovoid, oblong, or triangular, rarely suborbicular, 2.1–3.9 × 1–2.6 mm, embryo 1/5–2/3 of seed volume, surface papillose, reticulate or rarely irregularly roughened; seed collar sealed by a thin membrane, this flat or depressed into raphial cavity, when depressed often splitting, becoming separated from seed collar. |
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2n | = 14. |
= 14, 28. |
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Oenothera kunthiana |
Oenothera cespitosa |
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Phenology | Flowering Feb–May. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Alluvial flats, open areas, sandy soil, weedy sites. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 10–1300[–2000] m. (0–4300[–6600] ft.) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
TX; Mexico; Central America; n South America [Introduced widely in temperate Europe, Asia, Pacific Islands (Hawaii), Australia]
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w North America; nw Mexico
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Discussion | 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.) |
Subspecies 5 (5 in the flora). Oenothera cespitosa occurs in a wide array of habitats, from grassland, desert scrub, pinyon-juniper woodland, or Arizona chaparral to montane conifer forests, rarely at timberline, at elevations from (450–)800–3370 m. Oenothera cespitosa is self-incompatible (W. L. Wagner et al. 1985; Wagner 2005). Pachylophus nuttallii Spach is an illegitimate 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. Leucocoryne | Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Oenothera > sect. Pachylophus | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Synonyms | Hartmannia kunthiana, H. domingensis, H. parviflora, O. domingensis, O. fissifolia, O. walpersii | Pachylophus cespitosus | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Spach) Munz: Amer. J. Bot. 19: 759. (1932) | Nuttall: Cat. Pl. Upper Louisiana, no. 53. (1813) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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