The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Mckelvey's beeblossom

Habit Herbs perennial, clumped, long-villous, more sparsely so distally, hairs erect, 2–4 mm, also strigillose, sometimes glabrate distally or also sparsely glandular puberulent; from twisted, woody rootstock.
Stems

ascending, branched below or just above ground, branched also proximal to inflorescences, 30–70(–120) cm.

Leaves

in a basal rosette and cauline, basal 3–17 × 0.8–2 cm, blade oblanceolate, cauline 1–6.5 × 0.1–1.5 cm, sessile, blade narrowly oblanceolate to elliptic, margins conspicuously sinuate-dentate, often undulate.

Inflorescences

slender.

Flowers

4-merous, zygomorphic, opening near sunset;

floral tube 2–3.5 mm;

sepals 6–12 mm;

petals white, fading dark pink to red, slightly unequal, elliptic-obovate, 7–11 mm, long-clawed;

stamens presented in lower 1/2 of flower, filaments 5–9 mm, lanate at very base, anthers 2–4 mm, pollen 90–100% fertile;

style 9–16 mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis.

Capsules

reflexed, lanceoloid to narrowly ovoid, narrowly 4-winged, 8–19 × 1.5–2 mm, tapering to a sterile stipe 3–9 mm.

Seeds

(1 or)2–4, 2–3 × 1 mm, yellowish to reddish brown.

2n

= 14.

Oenothera mckelveyae

Phenology Flowering Mar–Jun.
Habitat Sandy soil.
Elevation 0–300 m. (0–1000 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
TX; Mexico (Nuevo León, Tamaulipas)
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Oenothera mckelveyae, on the Rio Grande Plain, is found in an area bounded by from Dimmit and LaSalle counties east to Karnes and Refugio counties in the north, southward through south Texas, extending to northeastern Tamaulipas and adjacent Nuevo León. P. H. Raven and D. P. Gregory (1972[1973]) found Oenothera mckelveyae to be self-incompatible.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 10.
Parent taxa Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Oenothera > sect. Gaura > subsect. Stipogaura
Sibling taxa
O. acutissima, O. albicaulis, O. argillicola, O. arida, O. arizonica, O. biennis, O. boquillensis, O. brachycarpa, O. calcicola, O. californica, O. canescens, O. capillifolia, O. cavernae, O. cespitosa, O. cinerea, O. clelandii, O. coloradensis, O. cordata, O. coronopifolia, O. coryi, O. curtiflora, O. curtissii, O. deltoides, O. demareei, O. dodgeniana, O. drummondii, O. elata, O. engelmannii, O. falfurriae, O. filiformis, O. filipes, O. flava, O. fruticosa, O. gaura, O. gayleana, O. glaucifolia, O. glazioviana, O. grandiflora, O. grandis, O. harringtonii, O. hartwegii, O. havardii, O. heterophylla, O. hispida, O. howardii, O. humifusa, O. jamesii, O. kunthiana, O. laciniata, O. lavandulifolia, O. lindheimeri, O. linifolia, O. longissima, O. macrocarpa, O. mexicana, O. nealleyi, O. neomexicana, O. nutans, O. nuttallii, O. oakesiana, O. organensis, O. pallida, O. parviflora, O. patriciae, O. perennis, O. pilosella, O. platanorum, O. podocarpa, O. primiveris, O. psammophila, O. pubescens, O. rhombipetala, O. riparia, O. rosea, O. serrulata, O. sessilis, O. simulans, O. sinuosa, O. spachiana, O. speciosa, O. stricta, O. suffrutescens, O. suffulta, O. tetraptera, O. texensis, O. toumeyi, O. triangulata, O. triloba, O. tubicula, O. villosa, O. wolfii, O. xylocarpa
Synonyms Gaura villosa var. mckelveyae, Gaura mckelveyae
Name authority (Munz) W. L. Wagner & Hoch: Syst. Bot. Monogr. 83: 213. (2007)
Web links