Flora of North America species comparison

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Oenothera stricta subsp. stricta

Oenothera sect. Oenothera
Photo is of parent taxon
Habit Herbs annual or biennial, strigillose, especially proximally, also villous and glandular puberulent. Herbs annual, biennial, or perennial, caulescent; from a usually large taproot, sometimes developing adventitious shoots from lateral roots producing a fibrous root system.
Stems

erect or ascending, 25–100 cm.

erect to ascending or decumbent, branched or unbranched.
Leaves

in a basal rosette and cauline, basal 10–15 × 0.8–1.3 cm, cauline 6–10 × 0.6–1 cm;

blade very narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate or lanceolate, margins slightly wavy, serrate.

in a basal rosette and cauline, cauline (1–)3–25 cm;

blade margins pinnately lobed to sinuate-dentate, serrate to dentate or subentire.
Inflorescences

solitary flowers in axils of distal leaves, usually forming a dense or lax spike.
Flowers

buds with free tips 1–3 mm;

floral tube 20–45 mm;

sepals 14–20 mm;

petals yellow, fading reddish orange, 15–25(–35) mm;

filaments 10–20 mm, anthers 7–11 mm;

style 30–60 mm, stigma surrounded by anthers at anthesis.

opening near sunset, with a sweet scent or nearly unscented;

buds erect or recurved, terete or weakly quadrangular, with free tips;

floral tube 12–165(–190) mm;

sepals separating in pairs and reflexed, or splitting along only 1 suture and reflexed to one side as a unit, or separate and reflexed individually;

petals yellow, usually fading orange, reddish orange, yellow, or yellowish white, usually obcordate to obovate, sometimes rhombic, elliptic, or rhombic-ovate;

stigma deeply divided into 4 linear lobes.
Capsules

30–40 mm, subtending bract not adnate to capsule base.

straight, curved, or somewhat sigmoid, becoming somewhat woody in age, cylindrical to narrowly lanceoloid or ovoid, terete to weakly 4-angled dehiscent nearly throughout their length;

sessile.
Seeds

1.4–1.8 × 0.5–0.7 mm.

numerous, in (1 or) 2 rows per locule, prismatic and angled, narrowly to broadly ellipsoid to subglobose, rarely obovoid and obtusely angled, surface reticulate and regularly or irregularly pitted, rarely flat.
2n

= 14.

= 14.

Oenothera stricta subsp. stricta

Oenothera sect. Oenothera
Phenology Flowering Apr–May.
Habitat Open, disturbed sites.
Elevation 10–500 m. (0–1600 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; South America (Chile) [Introduced in North America; introduced also widely in temperate, semiarid regions]
North America; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies (Cuba); Bermuda [Introduced widely in temperate areas of the world]
Discussion

Subspecies stricta has been collected in several counties near the coast in California (Monterey, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz counties) a few times, but the most recent collections are from 1953 and 1995, and it may no longer be naturalized in California. It is naturalized widely in temperate, semiarid areas.

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

Species 68 (26 in the flora).

Section Oenothera is the largest section in the genus, consisting of 68 species (79 taxa) divided into six subsections, one of which is further divided into three series. Section Oenothera has a wide geographic distribution from Canada south to Panama and throughout temperate South America, essentially encompassing the full natural distribution of the genus, although there is very sparse representation (only O. elata) from central Mexico south to Panama. Species of this section occur in a variety of habitats, often disturbed ones, from sea level to 5000 m. Most of the species are self-compatible, but with a few self-incompatible taxa and individual populations of others (W. Dietrich et al. 1997; W. L. Wagner et al. 2007). The flowers are vespertine, fading the following morning, and are pollinated by hawkmoths (in O. versicolor Lehmann perhaps by hummingbirds), or autogamous. In sect. Oenothera, as in several other sections of the genus, the diploid, bivalent-forming, usually outcrossing, species often have relatively narrow geographic and ecological ranges, whereas closely related PTH species derived from them are usually autogamous and have much wider ranges. There are 37 PTH species in sect. Oenothera, which includes the majority of species of angiosperms with this anomalous genetic system.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Floral tubes 100–165(–190) mm; herbs perennial 17p.
O. subsect. Emersonia
1. Floral tubes (5–)12–50(–160) mm; herbs annual, biennial, or short-lived perennial.
→ 2
2. Seeds prismatic and angled, surface irregularly pitted 17p.
O. subsect. Oenothera
2. Seeds ellipsoid to subglobose, not angled, surface regularly pitted.
→ 3
3. Young flower buds nodding by recurved floral tube 17p.
O. subsect. Nutantigemma
3. Young flower buds with floral tube curved upward or straight.
→ 4
4. Petals rhombic to elliptic or rhombic-ovate 17p.
O. subsect. Candela
4. Petals shallowly or deeply obcordate.
→ 5
5. Young flower buds with floral tube curved upward 17p.
O. subsect. Raimannia
5. Young flower buds with floral tube straight 17p.
O. subsect. Munzia
Source FNA vol. 10. FNA vol. 10.
Parent taxa Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Oenothera > sect. Oenothera > subsect. Munzia > ser. Allochroa > Oenothera stricta Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Oenothera
Subordinate taxa
O. subsect. Candela, O. subsect. Emersonia, O. subsect. Munzia, O. subsect. Nutantigemma, O. subsect. Oenothera, O. subsect. Raimannia
Synonyms O. arguta, O. brachysepala, O. bracteata, O. bracteata var. glabrescens, O. glabrescens, O. mollissima subsp. propinqua, O. mollissima var. valdiviana, O. propinqua, O. propinqua var. sparsiflora, O. stricta var. propinqua, O. valdiviana, Onagra arguta
Name authority unknown unknown
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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