SPOTTED EVENING-PRIMROSE
File Size: 75 KB
 
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

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Grant County, Kansas (photo by Marion McGlohon)
Spotted evening-primrose flower
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Finney County, Kansas
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Finney County, Kansas
Spotted evening-primrose
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Finney County, Kansas