Jepson eFlora: Taxon page
Vascular Plants of California
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Epilobium oreganum
OREGON FIREWEED


Higher Taxonomy
Family: OnagraceaeView DescriptionDichotomous Key
Common Name: EVENING-PRIMROSE FAMILY
Habit: Annual to perennial herb (to tree). Leaf: cauline or basal, alternate, opposite, or whorled, generally simple and toothed (to pinnately compound); stipules 0 or generally deciduous. Inflorescence: spike, raceme, panicle, or flowers 1 in axils; bracted. Flower: generally bisexual, generally radial, often opening at either dawn or dusk; hypanthium generally prolonged beyond ovary (measured from ovary tip to sepal base); sepals 4(2--7); petals 4(2--7, rarely 0), often fading darker; stamens 2 × or = sepals in number, anthers 2-chambered, opening lengthwise, pollen interconnected by threads; ovary inferior, chambers generally as many as sepals (sometimes becoming 1), placentas axile or parietal, ovules 1--many per chamber, style 1, stigma 4-lobed (or lobes as many as sepals), club-shaped, spheric, or hemispheric. Fruit: capsule, loculicidal (sometimes berry or indehiscent and nut-like). Seed: sometimes winged or hair-tufted.
Genera In Family: 22 genera, +- 657 species: worldwide, especially western North America; many cultivated (Clarkia, Epilobium, Fuchsia, Oenothera). Note: Gaura moved to Oenothera. Fuchsia magellanica Lam. naturalized in northern California.
eFlora Treatment Author: Warren L. Wagner & Peter C. Hoch, family description, key to genera, treatment of genera by Warren L. Wagner, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Robert W. Patterson, Bruce G. Baldwin.
Genus: EpilobiumView DescriptionDichotomous Key


Common Name: WILLOWHERB
Habit: Annual to subshrub. Leaf: generally opposite proximally (or clustered in axils), generally +- fine-toothed; veins generally obscure. Inflorescence: generally raceme, bracted. Flower: radial or rarely +- bilateral; sepals 4, erect; petals 4, notched; stamens 8, anthers attached at middle, pollen grains generally shed in 4s, cream-yellow; ovary chambers 4, stigma generally club-like, occasionally 4-lobed. Fruit: straight, cylindric to club-like. Seed: generally in 1 row per chamber, generally with white, deciduous hair-tuft.
Etymology: (Greek: upon pod, from inferior ovary) Note: Incl Boisduvalia, Zauschneria. Most taxa polyploid; many with anthers +- = stigma self-pollinated; many hybrids. Taxa with alternate leaves moved to Chamerion.
eFlora Treatment Author: Peter C. Hoch
Reference: Raven 1976 Ann Missouri Bot Gard 63:326--340; Wagner et al. 2007 Syst Bot Monogr 83:81--95
Epilobium oreganum Greene
NATIVE
Habit: Perennial herb 4--10 dm from leafy, basal shoots, +- glabrous, +- glaucous. Leaf: 30--90 mm, narrow-lanceolate to -ovate; veins +- red, conspicuous; petiole 1--3 mm. Inflorescence: open, sparsely glandular. Flower: hypanthium 2--3 mm; sepals 6--10 mm; petals (6)10--15 mm, pink to rose-purple; stamens < pistil; stigma 4-lobed. Fruit: 25--45 mm, hairy and glandular; pedicel 3--6 mm. Seed: 0.9--1.3 mm, ridged, hair-tuft deciduous. Chromosomes: 2n=36.
Ecology: Bogs, small streams; Elevation: 550--1800 m. Bioregional Distribution: KR, NCoRO; Distribution Outside California: southwestern Oregon. Flowering Time: Jul--Aug Note: Often confused with Epilobium ciliatum, especially Epilobium ciliatum subsp. glandulosum.
Synonyms: Epilobium exaltatum Drew
Jepson eFlora Author: Peter C. Hoch
Reference: Raven 1976 Ann Missouri Bot Gard 63:326--340; Wagner et al. 2007 Syst Bot Monogr 83:81--95
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)
Listed on CNPS Rare Plant Inventory

Previous taxon: Epilobium obcordatum
Next taxon: Epilobium oregonense

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Botanical illustration including Epilobium oreganum

botanical illustration including Epilobium oreganum

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Citation for this treatment: Peter C. Hoch 2012, Epilobium oreganum, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=24383, accessed on April 15, 2024.

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 15, 2024.

Epilobium oreganum
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©1997 Julie Kierstead Nelson
Epilobium oreganum
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©2015 Steve Matson
Epilobium oreganum
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©2014 Julie Kierstead Nelson
Epilobium oreganum
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©2012 Julie Kierstead Nelson
Epilobium oreganum
click for enlargement
©2015 Steve Matson

More photos of Epilobium oreganum
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Geographic subdivisions for Epilobium oreganum:
KR, NCoRO
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map of distribution 1
(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).





 

Data provided by the participants of the  Consortium of California Herbaria.
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All markers link to CCH specimen records. The original determination is shown in the popup window.
Blue markers indicate specimens that map to one of the expected Jepson geographic subdivisions (see left map). Purple markers indicate specimens collected from a garden, greenhouse, or other non-wild location.
Yellow markers indicate records that may provide evidence for eFlora range revision or may have georeferencing or identification issues.
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CCH collections by month

Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA.
Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).