Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Pale evening primrose

PALE EVENING PRIMROSE

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Oenothera albicaulis Pursh

Morton County, Kansas

Annual

Height: 4-20 inches

Family: Onagraceae - Evening Primrose Family

Flowering Period: April, May, June

Also Called:

Prairie evening primrose.

Stems:

Erect, single, simple or branched, short densely hairy and stiff spreading-hairy; epidermis white, not exfoliating; branches often decumbent from base.

Leaves:

Basal leaves oblanceolate, egg-shaped, or spatula-shaped, 1 to 5.6 inches long, entire to wavy pinnately-divided, often absent at flowering; stalks often longer than blades; stem leaves alternate, lanceolate to oblanceolate, 1/2 to 4 inches long, 1/5 to 4/5 inch wide, stiff-hairy and soft-hairy; margins wavy to deeply lobed; short stalked to sessile.

Inflorescences:

Solitary flowers in axils of upper leaves.

Flowers:

Buds nodding; floral tube slender, .6 to 1.4 inch long, sparingly hairy, gray-colored; sepals 4, distinct, linear-lanceolate, 1/2 to 1 inch long, sparsely hairy, bending abruptly backward; margins with reddish-purple stripe; petals 4, heart-shaped, .6 to 1.6 inch long, nearly as wide, white, fading pinkish; tip notched; stamens 8; stigma 4-lobed.

Fruits:

Capsule, sessile, cylindric, .8 to 1.6 inch long, 1/10 to 1/8 inch in diameter, ribbed, ascending, straight or slightly curved, pubescent; seeds ellipsoid, yellowish-brown, pitted, in 2 rows in each compartment.

Habitat:

Sandy prairies, stream valleys, roadsides, waste places; sandy soil.

Distribution:

West 2/5 of Kansas.

Origin:

Native

Uses:

Native Americans ate the fruits for food, boiled the seeds in soups, used the dried flowers used as ceremonial medicine, and smoked the plant as a tobacco substitute.

Comments:

Somewhat weedy. The flowers have an unpleasant odor.

Pale evening primrose flower