Oenothera villosa
Prodr. Pl. Cap., 75. 1794.
Herbs biennial, densely strigillose and either sparsely or moderately villous, with appressed or spreading hairs (sometimes with red-pustulate bases), distally sometimes also glandular puberulent. Stems erect, usually flushed with red proximally, sometimes green or red throughout, unbranched or with branches obliquely arising from rosette and secondary branches arising from main stem, 50–200 cm. Leaves in a basal rosette and cauline, basal 10–30 × 1.2–4(–5) cm, cauline 5–20 × 1–2.5(–4) cm; blade dull green or grayish green, narrowly oblanceolate, oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic, or narrowly lanceolate, margins flat or undulate, dentate to subentire, teeth sometimes widely spaced, sometimes sinuate-dentate proximally; bracts persistent. Inflorescences dense to open, erect, unbranched. Flowers opening near sunset; buds erect, 3–5 mm diam., with free tips terminal, erect, 0.5–3 mm; floral tube 23–44 mm; sepals green to yellowish green, red-striped, or flushed with red, 9–18 mm; petals yellow to pale yellow, fading orange or pale yellow, very broadly obcordate, 7–20 mm; filaments 7–15 mm, anthers 4–10 mm, pollen ca. 50% fertile; style 30–55 mm, stigma surrounded by anthers at anthesis. Capsules erect or slightly spreading, dull green or gray-green when dry, lanceoloid, 20–43 × 4–7 mm, free tips of valves 1–2 mm. Seeds 1–2 × 0.5–1.2 mm.
Distribution
North America, introduced in s South America, Europe, Asia, s Africa.
Discussion
Subspecies 2 (2 in the flora).
Oenothera villosa is a PTH species and forms a ring of 14 chromosomes in meiosis, and is self-compatible and autogamous with plastome I and a AA genome composition (W. Dietrich et al. 1997). The original natural range of O. villosa was presumably from southern British Columbia south to California and east through the Rocky Mountain and the Great Plains regions. The wide occurrence east of this area in North America to eastern Quebec south throughout most of the eastern half of the United States, except for extreme southern and southeastern parts, is most likely the result of recent spread of this species, probably in the past several hundred years. Oenothera villosa is subdivided into two subspecies: subsp. strigosa occurs primarily in the Pacific Northwest southeast through the Rocky Mountains; subsp. villosa is found primarily from the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains eastward throughout the Great Plains region. Both taxa occur sporadically beyond these regions, and subsp. villosa is naturalized in many parts of the world.
Selected References
None.
Key
| 1 | Inflorescences usually dense (internodes in fruit usually shorter than capsule); plants dull green to grayish green, densely strigillose and sometimes also sparsely villous with appressed or subappressed hairs, these without or with red or green pustulate bases, rarely sparsely glandular puberulent distally; sepals green to yellowish green; leaf blade margins conspicuously dentate, venation prominent, especially abaxially. | Oenothera villosa subsp. villosa |
| 1 | Inflorescences usually open (internodes in fruit usually as long as or longer than capsule); plants flushed with red at least proximally, often red throughout, strigillose, usually also villous with erect to sometimes appressed hairs with pustulate bases, pustules red, also glandular puberulent at least distally; sepals red-striped or flushed with red; leaf blade margins usually denticulate or subentire, sometimes moderately dentate, venation not prominent. | Oenothera villosa subsp. strigosa |