WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Densely hairy stems to 30-inches tall with few branches have few flowers at tips. Note the densely hairy buds and 4 white petals that open at sunset and wither the next day.

FLOWER: May–September. Flowers white fading to pink with 4 egg-shaped petals 3/8–5/8-inch long (10–15 mm), tip notched, throat hairy; mature buds nodding, densely shaggy-hairy; stamens 1/2 as long as petals, style almost as long as petals, stigma with 4 lobes. Fruit a narrow cylindrical capsule to 1 3/4-inches long (4.5 cm).

LEAVES: Basal sometimes withered by blooming; alternate on stem. Stem blades 1–5-inches long (2.5–12.5 cm), oblong to lance-shaped or lobed along midrib; margins wavy or with coarse teeth; surfaces hairy, especially veins and margins.

HABITAT: Sandy soils, plains, roadsides; plains and prairies.

ELEVATION: 3,800–4,600 feet

RANGE: CO, KA, NM, OK, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The sprawling Tufted Evening Primrose, O. caespitosa, has erect buds and flowers with a hairy throat. Pale Evening Primrose, O. pallida, nearly statewide, has bushy, arching stems to 16-inches tall, nodding red buds with spreading tips, and white flowers with a hairless, yellow-greenish throat. The erect to sprawling Prairie Evening Primrose, O. albicaulis, has a style that extends beyond the anthers, red-striped nodding buds tipped with a sharp point, and a hairless floral throat.

NM COUNTIES: Eastern and southern NM in low-elevation, dry, sandy habitats: Chaves, Curry, De Baca, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Harding, Lea, Otero, Quay, Roosevelt, San Miguel, Socorro, Union, Valencia.