Family: Onagraceae
Oenothera speciosa
Citation:
Nutt., J. Acad. nat. Sci. Philad. 2:119 (1821 ).
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: Rose (or Mexican) evening-primrose. (I11. Hooker (1832) Curtis's Bot. Mag. 59:t. 3189.)
Description:
Perennial shrub to 50 cm high, with erect wiry-woody branches more or less branched, spreading by underground rhizomes covered with short stiff and more or less appressed hairs; leaves with petioles 0-0.8 cm long; lamina lanceolate to elliptic, rarely linear-lanceolate, 2-7 x 0.4-2.5 cm, usually obtuse, with a cuneate base, usually with widely spaced teeth and often with irregular lobes or pinnae towards the base of the plant, with short appressed hairs mainly along the veins.
Inflorescence with a few sessile flowers borne singly in the axils of the leaf-like bracts, with young buds drooping and becoming erect only before flowering; floral tube 1-1.5 cm long, cylindrical and scarcely widened below the sepals; sepals linear-lanceolate, 21-25 mm long, incompletely splitting and bent to one side, covered with short more or less appressed hairs outside; petals broadly obovate, 25-35 mm long, truncate to more or less emarginate, white to pink; stamens with filaments scarcely broadened towards the base, anthers dorsifixed and T-shaped, 7-8 mm long; ovary inferior, more or less cylindrical; stigma with 4 slender lobes c. 6 mm long.
capsule 1.5-2 mm long, with 4 ridges and alternating wings in the upper third.
Distribution:
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S.Aust.: NL, MU, SL. Native of south-western United States of America and Mexico.
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Conservation status:
naturalised
Flowering time: Nov. — Jan.; with flowers opening in the morning.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
Known only from a few garden escapes in urban areas.
Taxonomic notes:
Fig. 486K.
Author:
Not yet available
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