Oenothera macrocarpa |
Oenothera grandiflora |
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bigfruit evening primrose, Missouri evening primrose, Ozark sundrop |
large-flower evening-primrose |
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Habit | Herbs caulescent, strigillose or glabrous, sometimes glandular puberulent distally; from a stout taproot, sometimes lateral roots producing adventitious shoots. | Herbs biennial, often appearing glabrous to naked eye, usually sparsely to moderately strigillose and villous with pustulate, translucent hairs proximal to inflorescence, pustules not red (in fresh material), inflorescence glabrous, glandular puberulent, or strigillose and glandular puberulent. | ||||||||||||||||
Stems | moderately leafy, (1–)4–40(–60) cm. |
erect, red on proximal parts, usually green on distal ones, rarely red throughout, unbranched or with branches obliquely arising from rosette and secondary branches arising from main stem, 100–300(–400) cm. |
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Leaves | cauline, (2.8–)3.7–12.5(–17) × (0.1–)0.4–3(–4.5) cm; petiole (0.4–)1–4(–6) cm; blade linear, lanceolate-elliptic, elliptic to oblanceolate or suborbiculate, margins entire or conspicuously or inconspicuously denticulate or serrulate, sometimes undulate, apex usually acute, sometimes obtuse or retuse (subsp. incana). |
in a basal rosette and cauline, basal 18–32 × (2–)3–6.5 cm, cauline 6–20 × 1.5–6.5 cm; blade soft and thin, bright green, usually flat, rarely undulate, narrowly oblanceolate to narrowly obovate, or narrowly elliptic to elliptic, sometimes narrowly ovate distally, margins bluntly dentate or subentire, teeth widely spaced, sometimes sinuate-dentate proximally or lobed; bracts usually caducous. |
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Inflorescences | erect, often with secondary or tertiary branches just proximal to main one. |
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Flowers | usually 1 or 2, rarely more, opening per day near sunset, fading next morning, sometimes (subspp. |
opening near sunset; buds erect, 5–9 mm diam., with free tips terminal, erect, 2–9 mm; floral tube 35–55 mm; sepals yellowish green or flushed with red, 22–46 mm; petals yellow to pale yellow, fading pale yellowish white, very broadly obcordate or obovate, (25–)30–45 mm; filaments 18–27 mm, anthers 10–15 mm, pollen 90–100% fertile; style 57–90 mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. |
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Capsules | papery in age, narrowly ellipsoid to lanceoloid, sometimes twisted (subsp. fremontii), winged, wings (2–)10–28(–34) mm wide, body (13–)25–70(–115) × 2–9 mm, dehiscent 1/4–1/3 their length; pedicel 1–12(–25) mm. |
erect or slightly spreading, dull green when dry, narrowly lanceoloid to narrowly ovoid, 15–35 × 3.5–5.5 mm, free tips of valves 0.5–2.5 mm. |
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Seeds | numerous, rarely as few as 8, in 1 row per locule, obovoid, (2–)3–5 × 1–2.3 mm. |
1–1.7 × 0.6–1.2 mm. |
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Macrocarpa | and oklahomensis) lasting for 2 days, weakly scented; buds with unequal free tips 1–11(–15) mm; floral tube (21–)35–140(–160) mm; sepals (20–)25–65(–75) mm; petals bright yellow, fading orange, reddish orange or mostly unchanged, obovate to very broadly obovate, (17–)25–65(–68) mm, usually with terminal notch and/or tooth, margin sometimes erose; filaments 13–40(–44) mm, anthers 10–24(–25) mm; style (45–)55–192 mm, stigma usually exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. |
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2n | = 14. |
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Oenothera macrocarpa |
Oenothera grandiflora |
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Phenology | Flowering Jul–Aug(–Sep). | |||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Scattered, presumably relictual populations on chalky bluffs, loose sand over limestone, along streams, marshes, ditches, roadsides. | |||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 20–600 m. (100–2000 ft.) | |||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
c United States; n Mexico; s United States
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AL; FL; MS; NC; SC; TN |
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Discussion | Subspecies 5 (4 in the flora). Oenotheramacrocarpa is variable and has differentiated extensively in the Great Plains region. Each of the five distinctive subspecies occupies a different geographical and ecological situation. Only subsp. mexicana W. L. Wagner from Coahuila, Mexico, occurs outside of the flora area. In general, the subspecies are sharply distinct and each is characterized by a number of features, including pubescence, leaf features, flower and floral tube size, and size and morphology of the capsules and seeds. The five entities are treated as subspecies primarily because of their complete interfertility and extensive intergradation in any area of marginal contact. Intermediates are known between subsp. macrocarpa and subspp. fremontii and oklahomensis and between subspp. incana and oklahomensis. There is also some evidence that suggests past hybridization between subspp. fremontii and incana although there is no present contact between them. All subspecies are self-incompatible. Oenothera alata Nuttall (1818) is an illegitimate name based on O. macrocarpa and pertains here. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Oenothera grandiflora has a scattered distribution, from the eastern half of Mississippi and Alabama, east to Tennessee (Franklin and Marion counties), North Carolina (Cherokee, Macon, Martin, Moore, New Hanover, Sampson, and Swain counties), South Carolina (Oconee, Spartanburg, and Sumter counties), and Florida (Alachua, Escambia, Franklin, Lake, Leon, Polk, Putnam, and Santa Rosa counties). Collections from southern Canada, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and West Virginia almost certainly represent cultivated plants, garden escapes, or adventive populations, and the single locality from central Kentucky also may be an introduction; it is sometimes a colonizer in disturbed sites such as along roads. Oenothera grandiflora has plastome III and a BB genome composition. As summarized by W. Dietrich et al. (1997), some populations of O. grandiflora seem to be entirely or mostly composed of self-incompatible individuals, whereas others consist of self-compatible plants. This is an extremely uncommon phenomenon within a single species of Oenothera; the only other species known to exhibit mixed populations of self-incompatible and self-compatible individuals is O. primiveris. Oenothera grandiflora Lamarck 1798, being a later homonym of O. grandiflora L’Héritier 1789, 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 | Megapterium macrocarpum, M. nuttallianum | O. biennis var. grandiflora, O. grandiflora var. glabra, O. grandiflora var. pubescens, O. lamarckiana, O. spectabilis | ||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Nuttall: Cat. Pl. Upper Louisiana, no. 56. (1813) | L’Héritier in W. Aiton: Hort. Kew. 2: 2. (1789) | ||||||||||||||||
Web links |