Oenothera rhombipetala |
Oenothera hartwegii |
|||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
fourpoint evening primrose |
Fendler evening primrose, Hartweg's sundrops |
|||||||||||||||||
Habit | Herbs biennial, densely to sparsely strigillose, sometimes also sparsely glandular puberulent distally. | Herbs perennial, sometimes suffrutescent, strigillose, glandular puberulent, glabrous, hirtellous, or short-pilose; from a stout taproot. | ||||||||||||||||
Stems | sometimes with lateral branches arising obliquely from rosette, 30–100(–150) cm. |
1–many, erect to ascending, unbranched to densely branched, 4–60 cm. |
||||||||||||||||
Leaves | in a basal rosette and cauline, basal 6–20 × 0.6–2 cm, cauline 3–15 × 0.8–2.5 cm; blade narrowly oblanceolate, gradually narrowly elliptic to narrowly lanceolate, oblanceolate, or ovate distally, margins lobed to remotely dentate or subentire; bracts slightly longer than capsule they subtend. |
0.3–6.5 × 0.04–1.2 cm, sometimes fascicles of small leaves 0.1–1.5 cm present in non-flowering axils; petiole 0–0.2 cm; blade elliptic, lanceolate, linear, or filiform to ovate or oblanceolate, usually not much reduced distally, proximalmost leaves sometimes obovate to spatulate, base attenuate to obtuse, truncate, or subcordate, sometimes clasping, margins entire or serrate, often undulate, apex acute. |
||||||||||||||||
Inflorescences | dense, usually without lateral branches, mature buds usually not overtopping spike apex. |
|||||||||||||||||
Flowers | 2–several per spike opening per day near sunset; buds erect, with free tips erect, 0.5–3 mm; floral tube slightly curved upward to ± straight, 30–45 mm; sepals 15–30 mm; petals yellow, broadly elliptic to rhombic-elliptic, 15–35 mm; filaments 13–25 mm, anthers 3–8 mm, pollen 85–100% fertile; style 25–50 mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. |
usually 1 per stem opening per day in afternoon or near sunset; buds with free tips 0.5–6 mm; floral tube 16–50(–60) mm, funnelform in distal 1/2 or less; sepals 7–28 mm; petals yellow, fading pale pinkish or pale purple, 10–35 mm; filaments 4–13 mm, anthers 5–13 mm, pollen 85–100% fertile; style 25–65(–75) mm, stigma yellow, quadrangular, usually exserted beyond anthers. |
||||||||||||||||
Capsules | narrowly lanceoloid, 13–25 × 2.5–3 mm. |
6–40 × 2–4 mm, hard, promptly dehiscent throughout their length. |
||||||||||||||||
Seeds | brown, sometimes flecked with dark red spots, ellipsoid, 1–1.7 × 0.4–0.7 mm. |
obovoid, 1–2.5 mm. |
||||||||||||||||
2n | = 14. |
= 14, 28. |
||||||||||||||||
Oenothera rhombipetala |
Oenothera hartwegii |
|||||||||||||||||
Phenology | Flowering May–Oct. | |||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Fields, prairies, sandy soil. | |||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 60–600(–1300) m. (200–2000(–4300) ft.) | |||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
AR; CO; IL; KS; MI; MN; MO; NE; NM; OK; SD; TX; WI
|
c United States; sw United States; n Mexico
|
||||||||||||||||
Discussion | Oenothera rhombipetala is primarily a central plains species that has scattered localities in the Midwest to Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and barely entering the easternmost parts of Colorado and New Mexico. Oenothera rhombipetala had a broader delimitation (P. A. Munz 1965) until W. Dietrich and W. L. Wagner (1988) divided it into three species (O. clelandii, O. curtissii, and O. rhombipetala), with both of the split-off species being PTH. Evidence gathered by Dietrich and Wagner showed that these PTH species are geographically separated populations of small-flowered plants, and although they are very close morphologically, their distributions and morphological differences suggest that they were each derived independently from O. rhombipetala. Oenothera rhombipetala is self-incompatible. Oenothera pyramidalis H. Léveillé is a superfluous name and pertains here. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Subspecies 5 (5 in the flora). Oenothera hartwegii consists of five intergrading subspecies, which are generally locally common on rocky, sandy, gypsum, or limestone soil in arid to relatively mesic open areas, in southeastern Colorado, southwestern Kansas, western Oklahoma, Texas (except eastern part), New Mexico, southeastern and east-central Arizona, and in Mexico from Chihuahua, northern Coahuila, and northwestern Tamaulipas south to Aguascalientes. H. F. Towner (1977) found that O. hartwegii is self-incompatible and usually vespertine; two of the subspecies (filifolia and maccartii) open early in the afternoon and are pollinated both day and evening. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
||||||||||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 10. | FNA vol. 10. | ||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | O. heterophylla var. rhombipetala, O. leona, Raimannia rhombipetala | Calylophus hartwegii, Galpinsia hartwegii, Salpingia hartwegii | ||||||||||||||||
Name authority | Nuttall ex Torrey & A. Gray: Fl. N. Amer. 1: 493. (1840) | Bentham: Pl. Hartw., 5. (1839) — (as hartwegi) | ||||||||||||||||
Web links |