WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

 

Arching reddish stems 8–20 inches long have showy fragrant flowers with 4 white petals and a yellowish-green throat without hairs. Older stems turn white and flaky. Note the style is longer than the stamens and is tipped with 4 narrow lobes, and the nodding buds have tiny, spreading tips. This evening primrose has 4 subspecies in NM with differing amounts of foliage hair and variable leaf margins.


FLOWER: April–May. Fragrant flowers have a floral tube 5/8–1 3/8-inches long (15–35 mm) with a yellowish-green throat without hair, 4 pinkish sepals that bend backwards against the stem, and 4 oval, white petals to 1-inch long (25 mm); the stigma has 4 cross-like lobes and extends beyond the stamens to prevent self pollination. The buds nod, are red-striped to red, hairless or covered with tiny hairs, and have tiny spreading tips. Fruit is a narrow cylindrical capsule to 1 3/8-inches long (3.5 cm).


LEAVES: Basal rosette usually absent. Stem leaves alternate; blades vary from linear to lance-shaped, 3/8–2 3/8-inches long (1–6 cm), 5/8-inch wide (15 mm); margins entire, wavy, or with coarse teeth; surfaces hairless to hairy depending on subspecies.


HABITAT: Deep sand, sandy-loam, gravelly soils; desert grasslands and scrub, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa-oak woodlands.


ELEVATION: 3,800–8,000 feet.


RANGE: AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, UT, TX, WA, WY.


SIMILAR SPECIES: 35 species of Oenothera in NM, many restricted to one or a few counties. Of the 7 white-flowering species, Prairie Evening Primrose, O. albicaulis, statewide, has heart-shaped petals, nodding buds with red stripes, and rough, hairy leaves deeply lobed to the mid-vein. Another sprawling white species, Stemless Evening Primrose, O. caespitosa, statewide, has erect buds and flowers with a hairy throat. Engelmann’s Evening Primrose, O. engelmannii, scattered in the eastern plains and southern NM, has woolly-hairy buds and leaves. Combleaf Evening Primorse, O. coronopilolia, statewide except se counties, has erect stems with leaves deeply lobed along midrib and flowers with a densely hairy throat.


NM COUNTIES: Nearly statewide (except se corner) in low- to mid-elevation arid habitats.: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Curry, De Baca, Dona Ana, Grant, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Quay, Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union.

PALE  EVENING  PRIMROSE

OENOTHERA  PALLIDA

Evening Primrose Family, Onagraceae

Perennial, annual herb

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Throat is hairless (upper arrow).

Style is longer than stamens (lower arrow).

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