Tufted Evening Primrose Flower Tufted Evening Primrose Leaves Tufted Evening Primrose Plant

Wildflowers of Southern Arizona


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Tufted Evening Primrose.
Oenothera caespitosa.
Evening Primrose (Onagraceae) family.

The flowers are nocturnal and open in the evening and then close the following morning. The flowers are up to 2 inches (5 cm) across and have 4 broad, notched, heart-shaped petals that turn a pinkish color as they age and wilt. The leaves are solid grayish green to variably spotted with red-brown, oblanceolate in shape, deeply toothed or pinnately lobed except near the leaf tips, and in a flattened basal rosette. The first leaves may not be lobed, while the later leaves are typically very deeply lobed.

This specimen was found within twenty feet of both a Hooker's Evening Primrose and a Mustard Evening Primrose (under a shade tree) alongside the highway.



Santa Catalina Mountains.
Catalina Highway
Location: Shoulder of Catalina Highway 0.25 mile from Prison Camp turnoff at 4700 ft; GPS: 32.33872, -110.71206.
5/2/15

See SEINet Pictures and Description

See FireFly Forest Pictures and Description

Thumb: Desert Evening Primrose
« D. E. Primrose
Thumb: Mustard Evening Primrose
M. E. Primrose »