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.
Habit: Annual from taproot. Leaf: basal and/or cauline, alternate, simple to 2-pinnate. Inflorescence: spike. Flower: opening at dusk; sepals 4, reflexed singly or in pairs; petals 4, generally white, pink, or rarely red, without spots or ultraviolet reflective area, fading red; longer stamens opposite sepals, anthers attached at middle, pollen grains 3-angled; stigma hemispheric, generally > anthers and cross-pollinated or +- = anthers and self-pollinated. Fruit: straight to coiled, sessile. Seed: in 1 row per chamber, obovoid to oblanceoloid, minutely pitted, sometimes those near base of fruit coarsely papillate. Etymology: (Greek: desert + Oenothera) Note: Incl in Camissonia in TJM (1993). eFlora Treatment Author: Warren L. Wagner Reference: [Wagner et al. 2007 Syst Bot Monogr 83:1--240] Unabridged Reference: Raven 1969 Contr US Natl Herb 37:161--396
Eremothera refracta (S. Watson) W.L. Wagner & Hoch
NATIVE Habit: Plant generally +- red, sparsely minutely strigose, especially in inflorescence also glandular; rosette +- 0. Stem: erect, 6--45 cm, peeling. Leaf: < 60 mm, narrowly elliptic to narrowly lanceolate, proximal-most generally oblanceolate, sparsely minutely dentate. Inflorescence: nodding. Flower: hypanthium 4--6 mm; sepals 4--6 mm; petals 3.5--7 mm, white fading +- red; 70--100% of pollen grains 4--5-angled. Fruit: 20--50 mm, 0.7--1 mm wide, spreading or reflexed, cylindric, straight or wavy. Seed: 0.9--1.5 mm, minutely pitted in rows. Chromosomes: 2n=14. Ecology: Sandy slopes, flats, desert scrub; Elevation: -30--1300 m. Bioregional Distribution: D; Distribution Outside California: to southern Nevada, southwestern Utah, western Arizona. Flowering Time: Mar--May Note: Cross-pollinated. Synonyms: Camissonia refracta (S. Watson) P.H. Raven; Oenothera refracta S. Watson; Oenothera deserti M.E. Jones Jepson eFlora Author: Warren L. Wagner Reference: [Wagner et al. 2007 Syst Bot Monogr 83:1--240] Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Eremothera minor Next taxon: Eulobus
Botanical illustration including Eremothera refracta
Citation for this treatment: Warren L. Wagner 2012, Eremothera refracta, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=89224, accessed on February 09, 2025.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2025, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on February 09, 2025.
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