Oenothera parviflora |
Oenothera macrocarpa |
|||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
northern evening-primrose, small-flower evening-primrose |
bigfruit evening primrose, Missouri evening primrose, Ozark sundrop |
|||||||||||||||||
Habit | Herbs biennial, sparsely strigillose, glandular puberulent, and villous with pustulate or non-pustulate hairs, sometimes predominately strigillose proximally or predominately villous with pustulate or non-pustulate hairs distally, glabrous, or some mixture of strigillose, glandular puberulent, or sparsely villous distally, sometimes appearing glabrous to the naked eye. | Herbs caulescent, strigillose or glabrous, sometimes glandular puberulent distally; from a stout taproot, sometimes lateral roots producing adventitious shoots. | ||||||||||||||||
Stems | erect, green or red on proximal parts or throughout, mostly branched from base or only in distal 1/2, 30–150 cm. |
moderately leafy, (1–)4–40(–60) cm. |
||||||||||||||||
Leaves | in a basal rosette and cauline, basal 10–30 × 1–4 cm, cauline 4–18 × 1–3 cm; blade usually bright green, sometimes pale green distally, white- or red-veined, narrowly oblanceolate, narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, or oblong, margins usually flat, rarely undulate, regularly dentate to remotely denticulate, sometimes teeth widely spaced; bracts persistent. |
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). |
||||||||||||||||
Inflorescences | erect or ± curved, unbranched or with secondary branches just proximal to main one. |
|||||||||||||||||
Flowers | opening near sunset; buds erect, 3–5 mm diam., with free tips subterminal, spreading to erect, 0.5–5 mm; floral tube 22–40 mm; sepals green to yellowish green or flushed with red or dark red, sometimes only red-flecked, 7–17 mm; petals yellow to pale yellow, fading pale yellow to pale yellowish orange, very broadly obcordate, 8–15(–20) mm; filaments 7–13 mm, anthers 3.5–6 mm, pollen ca. 50% fertile; style 25–50 mm, stigma surrounded by anthers at anthesis. |
usually 1 or 2, rarely more, opening per day near sunset, fading next morning, sometimes (subspp. |
||||||||||||||||
Capsules | erect or slightly spreading, usually greenish black when dry, narrowly lanceoloid to lanceoloid, 20–40 ×3.5–5 mm, free tips of valves 1–1.5 mm. |
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. |
||||||||||||||||
Seeds | 1.1–1.8 × 0.5–1 mm. |
numerous, rarely as few as 8, in 1 row per locule, obovoid, (2–)3–5 × 1–2.3 mm. |
||||||||||||||||
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. |
|||||||||||||||||
2n | = 14. |
|||||||||||||||||
Oenothera parviflora |
Oenothera macrocarpa |
|||||||||||||||||
Phenology | Flowering Jun–Aug. | |||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Open or disturbed, sandy or gravelly sites, roadsides, fallow fields, clearings, riverbanks, along water courses, salt marshes, coastal meadows. | |||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0–1700 m. (0–5600 ft.) | |||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
CT; DC; DE; IA; IL; IN; KY; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; NC; ND; NH; NJ; NY; OH; PA; RI; TN; VA; VT; WI; WV; BC; NB; NF; NS; ON; PE; QC [Introduced in Europe, Asia (ne China, Japan), s Africa, Pacific Islands (New Zealand), Australia]
|
c United States; n Mexico; s United States
|
||||||||||||||||
Discussion | Oenothera parviflora is a PTH species and forms a ring of 14 chromosomes in meiosis, and is self-compatible and autogamous (W. Dietrich et al. 1997). It has plastome IV and a BC genome composition. Onagra chrysantha Spach 1835, not Michaux 1803, is a superfluous name, as is Onagra chrysantha var. parviflora (Linnaeus) Spach, and both pertain here. O. biformiflora var. cruciata R. R. Gates is an invalid name that pertains here. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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.) |
||||||||||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 10. | FNA vol. 10. | ||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Oenothera > sect. Oenothera > subsect. Oenothera | Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Oenothera > sect. Megapterium | ||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | O. ammophiloidesr. var. flecticaulis, O. ammophiloides var. parva, O. angustifolia, O. angustissima, O. angustissima var. quebecensis, O. apicaborta, O. atrovirens, O. biennis var. cruciata, O. biennis var. parviflora, O. biformiflora, O. cleistantha, O. comosa, O. cruciata, O. cruciata var. sabulonensis, O. deflexa, O. flecticaulis, O. hazeliae, O. hazeliae var. parviflora, O. hazeliae var. subterminalis, O. intermedia, O. laevigata, O. laevigata var. scitula, O. laevigata var. similis, O. novae-scotiae, O. novae-scotiae var. distantifolia, O. novae-scotiae var. intermedia, O. parva, O. parviflora subsp. angustissima, O. parviflora var. angustissima, O. robinsonii, O. rubricapitata, O. scitula, O. subterminalis, O. venosa, Onagra biennis var. cruciata, O. chrysantha var. cruciata, O. cruciata, O. parviflora | Megapterium macrocarpum, M. nuttallianum | ||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Linnaeus: Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 2: 998. (1759) — (as parviflor) | Nuttall: Cat. Pl. Upper Louisiana, no. 56. (1813) | ||||||||||||||||
Web links |