Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Spotted evening-primrose

SPOTTED EVENING-PRIMROSE

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Oenothera canescens Torr. & Fremont

Finney County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 4-8 inches

Family: Onagraceae - Evening-primrose Family

Flowering Period: May, June, July

Stems:

Decumbent to erect, diffusely branched below, finely strigose to canescent; epidermis grayish green, not exfoliating.

Leaves:

Cauline, alternate, sessile or short-petiolate; blade lanceolate, .2 to .6 inch long, .08 to .28 inch wide, margins nearly entire to sinuate-denticulate, finely strigose.

Inflorescences:

Axillary, flowers solitary.

Flowers:

Radially symmetric; hypanthium .2 to .6 inch, finely strigose; sepals 4, deciduous, absent on fruit, reflexed, lanceolate, .33 to .4 inch, at least some of them joined at tip; petals pink with red spots or stripes, rarely white, 4, obovate, .33 to .5 inch, tip rounded; stamens 8, anthers .16 to .2 inch; stigma positioned above anthers, deeply 4-lobed, lobes .08 to .12 inch.

Fruits:

Capsules, erect, ovoid-pyramidal, .28 to .3 inch long, .12 to .2 inch wide, straight, sharply 4-angled, canescent; seeds many per fruit, light brown, obovoid, ca. .04 inch, smooth or obscurely roughened.

Habitat:

Sandy mixed-grass and shortgrass prairies, playas, buffalo wallows, margins of ponds, and prairie dog towns.

Distribution:

West half of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Spotted evening-primrose