202 ONAGRACEAE 



25. Oenothera contorta Dougl. Contorted Primrose. Fig. 3432. 



Oenothera contorta Dougl. ex Hook. Fl. Bor. Araer. 1 : 214. 1834. 

 Sphaerostigma contortum Walp. Rep. 2: 78. 1843. 



Annual, slender-stemmed, 5-10, occasionally 25 cm. tall, glabrate to finely pubescent, usually 

 with several to few suberect branches from near the base. Leaves well distributed, linear to 

 lance-linear, not over 2 mm. wide, 5-25 mm. long, subsessile, the lower ones frequently with 

 fascicles of smaller leaves in the axils, upper leaves reduced to leafy bracts ; hypanthium 1-2 mm. 

 long, glabrate to strigillose or glandular without; sepals lance-ovate, 1.5-2.5 mm. long; petals 

 bright yellow, aging red, narrowly obovate to obcordate, 2.5-3 mm. long; stamens unequal; 

 capsules linear, cylindrical, often torulose, sessile, curved or straight, 25-35 mm. long, ending in a 

 definite beak ; seeds brown, obovoid, less than 1 mm. long, minutely cellular-pitted. 



Dry loose slopes, recently disturbed places, sandy areas, etc.. Upper Sonoran Zone; eastern British Columbia 

 to Modoc County, California, and western Nevada. Type locality: "on sandy barren soils of the interior parts 

 of the Columbia'River." April-July. 



Oenothera contorta var. flexuosa (A. Nels.) Munz, Bot. Gaz. 85: 253. 1928. (Sphaerostigrna contortum 

 var ficxuosum A. Nels. Bot. Gaz. 40: 58. 1905; Oenothera parvula Nutt. in Torr. & Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 

 511 1840- Sphaerostigma filiforme A. Nels. op. cit. 57.) Stems and leaves as in the species; capsules more 

 slender, distinctly pedicelled, not beaked, 17-25 mm. long, frequently curved into a half circle. Ranging with 

 the species, but extending farther south (Inyo County, California) and east (Wyoming and Utah). Type 

 locality: Point of Rocks, Wyoming. 



Oenothera contorta var. pubens (S. Wats.) Coville, Contr. U.S. Nat. Herb. 4: 104. 1893. {Oenothera 

 strigulosa var. pubens S. Wats. Proc. Amer. Acad. 8: 594. 1873; Sphaerostigma orthocarpum Nels. & Kenn. 

 Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 19: 155. 1906.) Coarse-stemmed plants with abundant spreading pubescence; leaves 

 rather broad, commonly over 2 mm. wide; capsules 1 mm. or more in diameter, 25-35 mm. long, sessile or sub- 

 sessile, not beaked. Eastern middle California and western Nevada. Type locality: Carson City. Nevada. 



Oenothera contorta var. strigulosa (Fisch. & Mey.) Munz, Bot. Gaz. 85:255. 1928. (Sphaerostigma 

 strigulosum Fisch. & Mey. Ind. Sem. Hort. Petrop. 2:50. 1835.) Stems densely pubescent, with short ap- 

 pressed or incurved hairs, and growing to be 15-30 cm. tall; capsules short, 15-25 mm. long, not beaked, bandy 

 soils, upper Transition and Sonoran Zones; along the coast from Humboldt County to Monterey County, Cali- 

 fornia. Type locality: "Nova California." 



Oenothera contorta var. epilobioides (Greene) Munz, op. cit. 256. Large, commonly 25-40 cm. tall, erect; 

 stems mostly glabrate, but if pubescent, the hair is spreading (especially in plants from central California); 



inflorescence often glandular; capsules 25-40 mm. long, sessile, slender, commonly beaked Upper bonoran 

 Zone; cismontane region from southern Oregon to northern Lower California. Also in Chile. Type locality: 

 not given. 



26. Oenothera dentata var. campestris (Greene) Jepson. Field Primrose. 



Fig. 3433. 



Oenothera campestris Greene, Fl. Fran. 216. 1891. 

 Sphaerostigma campestre Small, Bull. Torrey Club 23: 189. 1896. 

 Oenothera dentata var. campestris Jepson, Man. Fl. PI. Calif. 685. 1925. 



Annual, usually bushy, freely branched from base, stems subdecumbent to ascending, occasion- 

 ally subsimple and erect, slender, even capillary, 5-20 cm. tall, with light-colored epidermis tend- 

 ing to exfoliate with age, short-villous below with spreading hair ; infloresence glandular. Leaves 

 well distributed, mostly lance-linear, subsessile, often fascicled, pubescent to glabrous, remotely 

 denticulate, 5-35 mm. long, gradually reduced up the stem to the leafy bracts of the inflorescence ; 

 flowers few, not crowded; hypanthium 2-4 mm. long; sepals lance-ovate, 3-6 mm. long; petals 

 bright yellow, with or without red dots at base, suborbicular to obovate to obcordate, 5-8 mm. 

 long; stamens unequal; capsule linear, terete, somewhat torulose, straight or somewhat con- 

 torted, strigillose or glabrate, 2-4 cm. long, slender, 0.5 mm. thick at base, usually with well- 

 defined beak; seeds brown, linear-obovoid, somewhat angled and flattened, minutely cellular- 

 punctate, 0.5 mm. long. 



Dry sandy plains. Upper Sonoran Zone; Great Valley of California and sparingly in the interior valleys of 

 the coastal counties from Antioch to Santa Barbara. Type locality: California. April-June. Oenothera dentata 

 Cav. was described from Chile and closely resembles our plant. 



Oenothera dentata var. Parishii (Abrams) Munz, Bot. Gaz. 85:259. 1928. {Sphaerostigma campestre 

 var. Harishii Abrams, Fl. Los Ang. 272. 1904.) Stems glabrate or with short appressed hair; inflorescence 

 usually canescent, sometimes glandular; flowers as in preceding variety; capsules slender^ 0.5 mm. thick, not 

 distinctly beaked; seeds 0.5 mm. long. Upper Sonoran and high Lower Sonoran Zones; California, in western 

 half of Mojave Desert and occasional in interior valleys of cismontane California from Santa Barbara County 

 to Riverside County. Type locality: San Bernardino. 



Oenothera dentata var. Johnstonii Munz, loc. cit. Stems glabrate or glandular-pubescent; inflorescence 

 glandular-pubescent. Leaves up to 6 mm. wide; flowers larger, sepals 5-12 mm. long; petals 10-16 mm. long; 

 capsule 1 mm. thick, not conspicuously beaked; seeds 1 mm. long. Upper and Lower Sonoran Zones, western 

 half of Mojave Desert, (California, eastward into Nevada. Type locality: near Mojave, California. 



Oenothera dentata var. Gilmanii Munz, Leaflets West. Bot. 2: 87. 1938. Whole plant viscid with short 

 spreading gland-tipped hairs. Death Valley, California, the type locality. 



27. Oenothera micrantha Hornem. Small Primrose. Fig. 3434. 



Oenothera hirta Link, Enum. Hort. Ber. 1: 378. 1821. Not O. hirta L. 

 Oenothera micrantha Hornem. ex Spreng. Syst. 2: 228. 1825. 

 Sphaerostigma micranthum Walp. Rep. 2: 77. 1843. 



Annual, simple or several-stemmed, prostrate, hirsute, 5-50 cm. long, leafy throughout, with 

 readily exfoliating epidermis. Basal leaves forming a sort of rosette, linear-lanceolate to oblance- 

 olate, almost entire, 2-10 cm. long with equal or longer petioles ; cauline leaves shorter, oblong- 

 lanceolate, sessile, obtuse, undulate, denticulate, commonly 5-7 mm. wide; flowers small, petals 

 yellow, often drying green, 2-4 mm. long ; stamens unequal ; capsules curved or contorted, quad- 



