Oenothera mexicana |
Oenothera sinuosa |
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Mexican evening primrose |
wavy-leaf gaura, wavyleaf beeblossom |
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Habit | Herbs annual, moderately to sparsely strigillose and densely long-villous, sometimes also becoming glandular puberulent distally. | Herbs perennial, usually glabrous, sometimes strigillose and villous, hairs erect; from a woody taproot but spreading by rhizomes (forming extensive colonies). |
Stems | erect to ascending, usually unbranched, or with arcuate lateral branches arising from rosette, 15–40(–60) cm. |
erect, branched below and just above ground, branched also proximal to inflorescences, 40–120(–250) cm. |
Leaves | in a basal rosette and cauline, basal 6–10 × 1–2.5 cm, cauline 3–7.5 × 0.8–2 cm; blade usually grayish green, narrowly oblanceolate to narrowly oblanceolate, margins deeply lobed, lobes usually dentate; bracts distalmost erect, revolute. |
in a basal rosette and cauline, (1–)3–11 × (0.1–)0.5–2 cm, blade linear to narrowly oblanceolate, margins usually sparsely sinuate-dentate, rarely subentire, often undulate. |
Inflorescences | stout. |
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Flowers | usually 1 opening per day near sunset; buds erect, with free tips erect or appressed, 0.5–2.5 mm; floral tube 23–28 mm; sepals 5–12 mm; petals yellow, fading orange, broadly obovate or shallowly obcordate, 6–15 mm; filaments 4–12 mm, anthers 3–4 mm, pollen 85–100% fertile; style 27–40 mm, stigma surrounded by anthers at anthesis. |
4-merous, zygomorphic, opening near sunset; floral tube 2.5–5 mm; sepals 7–14 mm; petals white, fading pink to red, slightly unequal, elliptic, 7–15 mm; stamens presented in lower 1/2 of flower, filaments 5–11 mm, lanate at very base, anthers 3–5 mm, pollen 90–100% fertile; style 12–19 mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. |
Capsules | cylindrical, sometimes slightly enlarged toward apex, 25–45 × 2.5–3 mm. |
narrowly ovoid, narrowly 4-winged or 4-angled, 8–15 × 1.5–3.5 mm, abruptly constricted to a long, sterile stipe 2–8 mm. |
Seeds | ellipsoid to subglobose, 0.8–1.2 × 0.3–0.5 mm. |
(1 or)2–4, light to reddish brown, 2–3 × 1–1.5 mm. |
2n | = 14. |
= 28. |
Oenothera mexicana |
Oenothera sinuosa |
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Phenology | Flowering Apr–May. | Flowering Apr–Aug. |
Habitat | Open, sandy sites. | Flats and washes in light sandy loam. |
Elevation | 30–200 m. (100–700 ft.) | 0–300(–1300) m. (0–1000(–4300) ft.) |
Distribution |
TX |
AL; AR; CA; FL; GA; MO; NY; OK; TX [Introduced in Europe (Italy), s Africa]
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Discussion | Oenothera mexicana is known only from southeastern Texas (Atascosa, Aransas, Bexar, Brooks, Burleson, De Witt, Frio, Gonzales, Kenedy, Medina, Newton, Refugio, San Patricio, Waller, and Washington counties). It is self-compatible and autogamous, but not a PTH species. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
P. H. Raven and D. P. Gregory (1972[1973]) determined Oenothera sinuosa to be self-incompatible. Oenothera sinuosa is endemic to Oklahoma and Texas and is escaped or naturalized in Alabama, Arkansas, California (where found to 1300 m), Florida, Georgia, Missouri, and New York. Oenothera sinuosa is potentially a noxious weed due to the aggressive rhizomatous habit, but is somewhat limited by its self-incompatibility. Molecular data (G. D. Hoggard et al. 2004) are consistent with the hypothesis that the allotetraploid (2n = 28) O. sinuosa arose by interspecific hybridization of two species within subsect. Stipogaura as suggested by P. H. Raven and D. P. Gregory (1972[1973]). The molecular data indicate that the pistillate parent came from O. calcicola or a close relative, while the staminate parent originated from the lineage that gave rise to O. cinerea and O. filipes. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 10. | FNA vol. 10. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | O. laciniata var. mexicana, O. sinuata var. hirsuta, Raimannia mexicana | Gaura sinuata |
Name authority | Spach: Nouv. Ann. Mus. Hist. Nat. 4: 347. (1836) | W. L. Wagner & Hoch: Syst. Bot. Monogr. 83: 214. (2007) |
Web links |