Oenothera tetraptera |
Oenothera elata |
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fourwing evening-primrose |
evening primrose, Hooker's evening-primrose, western evening primrose |
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Habit | Herbs annual or perennial, strigillose and also hirsute; from a slender taproot. | Herbs biennial or short-lived perennial, densely strigillose and either sparsely or moderately villous, with appressed or spreading hairs (sometimes with red-pustulate bases), distally sometimes also glandular puberulent. | ||||
Stems | 15–50 cm. |
erect, green, flushed with red proximally or red throughout, unbranched or branches obliquely arising from rosette and secondary branches arising from main stem, 30–250 cm. |
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Leaves | 2.5–10 × 0.6–2.5 cm; petiole 0.2–2.2 cm; blade usually lanceolate to oblanceolate, sometimes elliptic, margins weakly serrate to sinuate-pinnatifid. |
in a basal rosette and cauline, basal 10–43 × 1.2–4(–6) cm, cauline 4–25 × 1–2.5(–4) cm; blade dull green to grayish green, rarely red, narrowly oblanceolate or oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic or narrowly lanceolate, margins usually flat, rarely undulate, bluntly dentate or subentire, teeth sometimes widely spaced, proximal blades sometimes sinuate-dentate toward base; bracts persistent. |
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Inflorescences | erect, unbranched. |
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Flowers | 1–3 opening per day near sunset; buds with free tips 0.5–3 mm; floral tube 10–30 mm; sepals 20–40 mm; petals white, fading pink, 20–43 mm; filaments 12–18 mm, anthers 5–10 mm, pollen 85–100% fertile; style 19–67 mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. |
opening near sunset; buds erect, 6–10 mm diam., with free tips terminal, erect, 1–7 mm; floral tube (20–)30–45(–50) mm; sepals yellowish green, red-striped or strongly flushed with red, 27–50 mm; petals yellow to pale yellow, fading orange or pale yellow, very broadly obcordate, (25–)30–47(–55) mm; filaments 17–25 mm, anthers 8–23 mm, pollen 90–100% fertile; style 50–90 mm, stigma exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. |
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Capsules | broadly clavate or obovoid, 20–51 × 5–7 mm, winged, wings 2–4 mm, valve surface with prominent midrib, proximal stipe 8–45 mm; sessile. |
erect or slightly spreading, dull green or gray-green when dry, narrowly lanceoloid, 20–65 × 4–7 mm, free tips of valves 0.5–2.5 mm. |
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Seeds | narrowly obovoid, 1–1.5 × 0.5–0.7 mm. |
1–1.9 × 0.6–1.2 mm. |
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2n | = 14. |
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Oenothera tetraptera |
Oenothera elata |
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Phenology | Flowering Feb–May. | |||||
Habitat | Alluvial flats, open areas, sandy soil, weedy sites. | |||||
Elevation | 10–300[–2000] m. (0–1000[–6600] ft.) | |||||
Distribution |
TX; Mexico; Central America; West Indies (Jamaica); n South America [Introduced widely in temperate Europe, Asia, s Africa, Australia]
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w United States; c United States; Mexico; Central America
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Discussion | In the flora area, Oenothera tetraptera is known only from southern Texas. Oenothera tetraptera presumably has become naturalized in South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela), West Indies (Jamaica), Europe, Asia, South Africa, and Australia. Oenothera candida Dumont Courset is a superfluous name, as is O. candida Bellardi ex Colla, and they both pertain here. The name Hartmannia macrantha Spach is illegitimate and pertains here. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Subspecies 3 (2 in the flora). Subspecies elata differs in anthers 7–12 mm, fewer or no pustulate-based hairs, and generally smaller flowers and habit. It ranges from the highlands of central Mexico, including Guanajuato, Hidalgo, México, Michoacán, Puebla, Querétaro, and Veracruz, south to Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Panama. Oenothera elata has plastome I and a AA genome composition. Onagra kunthiana Spach is a superfluous name that pertains here. (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 | ||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Hartmannia latiflora, H. tetraptera, O. latiflora, O. tetraptera var. immutabilis, Xylopleurum tetrapterum | |||||
Name authority | Cavanilles: Icon. 3: 40, plate 279. (1796) | Kunth in A. von Humboldt et al.: Nov. Gen. Sp. 6(fol.): 72; 6(qto.): 90. (1823) | ||||
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