WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Arching reddish stems 8–20 inches long have showy fragrant flowers with 4 white petals and a yellowish-green throat without hairs. Older stems turn white and flaky. Note the style is longer than the stamens and is tipped with 4 narrow lobes, and the nodding buds have tiny, spreading tips. This evening primrose has 4 subspecies in NM with differing amounts of foliage hair and variable leaf margins.

FLOWER: April–May. Fragrant flowers have a floral tube 5/8–1 3/8-inches long (15–35 mm) with a yellowish-green throat without hair, 4 pinkish sepals that bend backwards against the stem, and 4 oval, white petals to 1-inch long (25 mm); the stigma has 4 cross-like lobes and extends beyond the stamens to prevent self pollination. The buds nod, are red-striped to red, hairless or covered with tiny hairs, and have tiny spreading tips. Fruit is a narrow cylindrical capsule to 1 3/8-inches long (3.5 cm).

LEAVES: Basal rosette usually absent. Stem leaves alternate; blades vary from linear to lance-shaped, 3/8–2 3/8-inches long (1–6 cm), 5/8-inch wide (15 mm); margins entire, wavy, or with coarse teeth; surfaces hairless to hairy depending on subspecies.

HABITAT: Deep sand, sandy-loam, gravelly soils; desert grasslands and scrub, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa-oak woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,800–8,000 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, UT, TX, WA, WY.

SIMILAR SPECIES: 35 species of Oenothera in NM, many restricted to one or a few counties. Of the 7 white-flowering species, Prairie Evening Primrose, O. albicaulis, statewide, has heart-shaped petals, nodding buds with red stripes, and rough, hairy leaves deeply lobed to the mid-vein. Another sprawling white species, Stemless Evening Primrose, O. caespitosa, statewide, has erect buds and flowers with a hairy throat. Engelmann’s Evening Primrose, O. engelmannii, scattered in the eastern plains and southern NM, has woolly-hairy buds and leaves. Combleaf Evening Primorse, O. coronopilolia, statewide except se counties, has erect stems with leaves deeply lobed along midrib and flowers with a densely hairy throat.

NM COUNTIES: Nearly statewide (except se corner) in low- to mid-elevation arid habitats.: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Curry, De Baca, Dona Ana, Grant, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Quay, Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union.