MOUNTAIN EVENING-PRIMROSE
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Oenothera latifolia   (Rydb. ) Munz
[=Oenothera pallida Dougl. & Lindl.]
Kearney County, Kansas (photo by Marion McGlohon)
Perennial
Height: 4-20 inches
Family: Onagraceae - Evening-primrose Family
Flowering Period:   June, July, August, September
Also Called: Pale evening-primrose.
Stems: Erect to decumbent or spreading, branched below and above, glabrate or strigose-canescent; epidermis white or greenish white, exfoliating.
Leaves: Cauline, alternate, sessile or short-petiolate; blades ovate to oblong-lanceolate, lanceolate, or elliptic, 2/5 to 3 inches long, 1/8 to 1/2 inch wide, margins nearly entire to remotely dentate or deeply sinuate-dentate to sinuate or pinnately lobed, glabrate or strigose.
Inflorescences: Axillary, flowers solitary.
Flowers: Radially symmetric; hypanthium 3/5 to 1.6 inch, glabrous to finely strigose; sepals 4, deciduous, absent on fruit, reflexed, lanceolate, 2/5 to 1.2 inch, distinct at flowering; petals 4, white, fading pink, obovate, 2/5 to 1.6 inch, tip rounded; stamens 8, anthers 1/5 to 2/5 inch; stigma positioned above anthers, deeply 4-lobed, lobes .25 to .28 inch.
Fruits: Radially symmetric; hypanthium 3/5 to 1.6 inch, glabrous to finely strigose; sepals 4, deciduous, absent on fruit, reflexed, lanceolate, 2/5 to 1.2 inch, distinct at flowering; petals 4, white, fading pink, obovate, 2/5 to 1.6 inch, tip rounded; stamens 8, anthers 1/5 to 2/5 inch; stigma positioned above anthers, deeply 4-lobed, lobes .25 to .28 inch.
Habitat: Sand and sandsage prairies, sandy mixed-grass prairies and flood plains.
Distribution: West half of Kansas and Cowley County
Origin: Native
Comments: Oenothera, a name used by Theophrastus for a species of Epilobium and latifolia, broad and leaf.

Mountain evening-primrose
98 KB
Kearney County, Kansas (photo by Marion McGlohon)
Mountain evening-primrose
170 KB
Kearney County, Kansas (photo by Marion McGlohon)