Oenothera stricta |
Oenothera californica |
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Chilean evening primrose |
California evening primrose |
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Habit | Herbs perennial, densely strigillose, sometimes also villous, or glabrous; from a taproot, lateral roots producing adventitious shoots, or rarely with fleshy underground horizontal rootstock (subsp. eurekensis). | |||||||||
Stems | ascending or decumbent, usually branched from near base, sometimes new rosettes forming at branch apex when buried in drifting sand, 10–60 cm. |
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Leaves | in a basal rosette and cauline, rosette sometimes weakly developed or absent, at least during flowering, 1–13 × 0.5–2 cm; petiole 0–2(–4.5) cm; blade oblong to oblanceolate or spatulate, sometimes rhombic-ovate, margins entire or weakly to conspicuously dentate or pinnatifid. |
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Flowers | 1–several opening per day near sunset; buds nodding, weakly quadrangular, with free tips 0–0.8 mm; floral tube 20–40 mm; sepals 15–30 mm, not spotted; petals white, fading pink to deep pink, broadly obcordate, 15–35(–40) mm; filaments 10–17 mm, anthers 5–10 mm; style 30–60 mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. |
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Capsules | spreading to ascending, woody in age, often curved upward, cylindrical, obtusely 4-angled, tapering slightly from base to apex, 20–80 × 2–3.5 mm; sessile. |
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Seeds | numerous, in 1 row per locule, olive-brown or yellowish brown to black, sometimes with minute purple dots, obovoid, 1–2.5 mm. |
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Oenothera stricta |
Oenothera californica |
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Distribution |
South America [Introduced, California] |
w United States; nw Mexico
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Discussion | Subspecies 2 (1 in the flora). Oenothera stricta is a PTH species and forms a ring of 14 chromosomes in meiosis, and is self-compatible and autogamous (W. Dietrich 1977). Subspecies stricta is naturalized in many areas around the world and may be so in California. Subspecies altissima W. Dietrich occurs only in Argentina. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Subspecies 3 (3 in the flora). Most populations of Oenothera californica are self-incompatible (W. L. Wagner et al. 2007; K. E. Theiss et al. 2010), but some populations of subsp. californica are self-compatible. All chromosome counts indicate that subspp. avita and eurekensis are diploid (2n = 14) and those of subsp. californica are tetraploid (2n = 28). Oenothera californica is polymorphic with subspp. avita and californica being very similar, and differing primarily in ecology, distribution, and relatively minor differences in leaf morphology and ploidy level, while the sand dune-restricted subsp. eurekensis is more distinctive in both morphology and habitat. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 10. | FNA vol. 10. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Oenothera > sect. Oenothera > subsect. Munzia > ser. Allochroa | Onagraceae > subfam. Onagroideae > tribe Onagreae > Oenothera > sect. Anogra | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | O. albicaulis var. californica, Anogra californica, O. pallida var. californica | |||||||||
Name authority | Ledebour ex Link: Enum. Hort. Berol. Alt. 1: 377. (1821) — (as striata) | (S. Watson) S. Watson in W. H. Brewer et al.: Bot. California 1: 223. (1876) | ||||||||
Web links |