WILDFLOWERS OF NEW MEXICO

Nodding to erect spikes of tiny, fragrant, white fading to pink flowers cover the 8–20-inch tall branching clumps of stiff, hairy stems. The 2–6-inch long spikes boom bottom upward. Note the erect, unopened buds crowded together on the stem tips. The Gaura genus is now lumped with Oenothera.

FLOWERS: May–August. 4 spoon-shaped petals, 1/8–1/4-inch long (3–7 mm), open white in the evening to attract night pollinators, then fade to red the next day. Two petals tend to face outward like wings at 90 degrees and 2 upward; 8 long white filaments droop down tipped with red anthers covered with yellow pollen. The stigma is longer than anthers to insure outcrossing. The seed capsule reaches 3/8-inch long (9 mm), is cylindrical with a narrowing tip, and covered with tiny hairs (use lens).

LEAVES: Alternate. Blades linear to oblong or lance-shaped, 1/4–2 1/2-inches long (1–6.5 cm) to 3/8-inch wide (15 mm); margins (edges) entire to shallowly-toothed, tips taper to a point; leaves get much smaller up the stem.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly, gypsum soils, roadsides, disturbed areas; desert grasslands and scrub, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa-Douglas fir forests.

ELEVATION: 3,400–8,000 feet.

RANGE: Widespread west of the Mississippi River.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The look-alike Colorado Beeblossom, O. coloradensis, in nw and southern NM, is 16–28-inches tall (40–70 cm), has leaves to 6-inches long (15 cm), larger petals, 3/8–1/2-inch long (10–14 mm), and a hairy elliptical seed capsule.

NM COUNTIES: Statewide in low- to mid-elevation, dry habitats.