204 ONAGRACEAE 



rangular, 12-20 mm. long, gradually attenuate toward apex and generally beaked ; seeds brown, 

 obovoid, finely cellular-pitted, 1 mm. long. 



Dry slopes and valleys, especially in sandy and disturbed places, Upper Sonoran Zone; along the coast, 

 Bodega Point, California, to Lower California. Type locality: California. March-May. 



Oenothera micrantha var. Jonesii (Levi.) Munz, Amer. Journ. Bot. 19:778. 1932. {Oenothera hirta 

 var. Jonesii Levi. Mon. Onoth. 213. 1905; Oenothera hirtella Greene, Fl. Fran. 215. 1891; Sphaerostigtna 

 arenicolum A. Nels. Bot. Gaz. 40: 58. 1905.) Erect or ascending, densely villous-pubescent throughout; 

 cauline leaves oblong-ovate to broadly ovate, acute, often sessile, with subcordate clasping base; flowers small as 

 in the species. Similar situations, but mostly on the hills and mountain bases of the interior valleys, northern 

 California to Lower California. Type locality: Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County. 



Oenothera micrantha var. ignota Jepson, Man. Fl. PI. Calif. 684. 1925. {Oenothera hirta var. ignota 

 Munz, Bot. Gaz. 85: 263. 1928.) Glabrate stems simple, erect; calyx glabrate; flowers larger; petals 5-7 mm. 

 long. Dry valleys and hills, in the interior, Kern and Madera Counties, California, to northern Lower Cali- 

 fornia. Type locality: Riverside County. 



Oenothera micrantha var. exfoliata (A. Nels.) Munz, Amer. Journ. Bot. 19:778. 1932. {Sphaero- 

 stigtna micranthum var. exfoliatum A. Nels. Bot. Gaz. 40:59. 1905; Oenothera Abramsii J. F. Macbride, 

 Contr. Gray Herb. No. 65: 41. 1922; Oenothera micrantha var. Abramsii Jepson, Man. Fl. PI. Calif. 685. 1925.) 

 Plant pallid with dense whitish pubescence; stems usually several from near the base, spreading; flowers rather 

 large; petals 3-6 mm. long. Dry slopes and plains, Upper and Lower Sonoran Zones; deserts of southern Cali- 

 fornia and western Arizona. Type locality; Colorado Desert, California. 



Oenothera guadalupensis S. Wats. Proc. Amer. Acad. 11: 115. 1876. Much like Oenothera micrantha, 

 but with oblong-pyramidal capsules 12 mm. long, 2.5 mm. thick and scarcely if at all curved. Sand dunes, San 

 Clemente Island, California, and Guadalupe Island, Lower California, the type locality. 



28. Oenothera bistorta Nutt. Southern Sun-cup. Fig. 3435. 



Oenothera bistorta Nutt. ex Torr. & Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 508. 1840. 

 Sphaerostigtna bistorta Walp. Rep. 2: 77. 1843. 



Annual, occasionally simple, but usually with several prostrate or ascending stems, these vil- 

 lous, light green, often tinged reddish, with exfoliating epidermis, rather slender, 5-80 cm. long. 

 Leaves green, pubescent to pilose, denticulate to subentire, those of the basal rosette 3-7 cm. long, 

 linear-oblanceolate, narrowed into petioles 1-4 cm. long ; cauline leaves often secund, shorter and 

 wider, the uppermost subsessile to cordate-clasping ; flowers in leaf-axils, only a few in anthesis 

 at once; hypanthium 3—5 mm. long; sepals 7-10 mm. long; corolla yellow, often drying greenish, 

 with or without dark spot at base, 8-14 mm. long; stamens unequal; capsule curved or contorted, 

 2-2.5 mm. thick, 12-15 mm. long, sharply quadrangular, with beak lacking or not more than 

 4-5 mm. long ; seeds brown, obovoid, 1 mm. long, finely cellular-pitted. 



Dry slopes, sea bluffs. Upper Sonoran Zone; largely about San Diego, occasional as far north as Los 

 Angeles County, California. Type locality: San Diego. March-May. 



Oenothera bistorta var. Veitchiana Hook. Bot. Mag. 84: pi. 5078. 1858. {Sphaerostigtna Veitchianutn 

 Small, Bull. Torrey Club 23: 191. 1896.) Capsule more slender, 1.5-2 mm. thick, and longer, 20-40 mm., 

 with the beak 3-10 or more mm. long. Dry slopes and valleys, Upper Sonoran Zone; largely in the interior 

 of cismontane southern California. Much more common than the species. Type locality: near San Gabriel, 

 Los Angeles County. 



Oenothera bistorta var. Hallii (Davidson) Jepson, Man. Fl. PI. Calif. 685. 1925. {Sphaerostigtna 

 Hallii Davidson, Muhlenbergia 3: 107. 1907.) Foliage pallid with short appressed hair. Dry slopes and plains 

 about the western edge of the Colorado Desert, southern California. Type locality: Banning, Riverside County. 



29. Oenothera cheiranthifolia Hornem. Beach Primrose. Fig. 3436, 



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



Oenothera spiralis Hook. Fl. Bor. Amer. 1: 213. 1833. 



Sphaerostigtna spirale Fisch. & Mey. Ind. Sem. Hort. Petrop. 2: 50. 1835. 



Perennial, apparently flowering first year, with several prostrate to decumbent wiry stems 

 radiating from a central rosette crowning the taproot, these 1-6 dm. long ; plant grayish pubes- 

 cent throughout. Leaves thick, those of rosette oblanceolate, 1-7 cm. long, obtuse, narrowed into 

 petioles 1-2 cm. long; lower cauline leaves lance-oblong, subsessile to short-petioled, obtuse, 

 subentire, 2-4 cm. long, the upper ones still shorter and broader, oblong-ovate to orbicular-ovate ; 

 flowers single in axils, mostly not near the base of the stems ; hypanthium 2.5—5 mm. long; sepals 

 lanceolate, 4-10 mm. long; petals bright yellow, with or without reddish spots at base, usually 

 drying green, often red, 5-9 mm. long ; stamens unequal ; capsule coiled, distinctly quadrangular, 

 short-beaked or not at all beaked, pubescent, 12-22 mm. long; seeds dark brown, obovoid, 1 mm. 

 long, minutely cellular-pitted. 



Sea beaches, LTpper Sonoran and Transition Zones; Coos County, Oregon, to Santa Barbara County, Cali- 

 fornia. Type locality: California. April-July. 



Oenothera cheiranthifolia var. suffruticosa S. Wats. Proc. Amer. Acad. 8: 592. 1873. {Oenothera 

 viridescens Hook. Fl. Bor. Amer. 1: 592. 1833; Oenothera spiralis var. viridescens Jepson, Man. Fl. PI. Calif. 

 684. 1925; Sphaerostigtna spirale var. clypeatum A. Nels. Bot Gaz. 40: 60. 1905.) Foliage silvery; perennial 

 and usually suffrutescent; flowers large; petals 13-22 mm. long. Sea beaches. Upper Sonoran Zone; Santa 

 Barbara, California, to northern Lower California. Type locality: California. Collected by Coulter. 



Oenothera cheiranthifolia var. nitida (Greene) Munz, Bot. Gaz. 85: 269. 1928. {Oenothera nitida 

 (Ireene, Pittonia 1: 70. 1887; Oenothera spiralis var. nitida Jepson, Man. Fl. PI. Calif. 684. 1925.) Flowers 

 like those of the species itself, with petals 5-8 mm. long; the plants glabrous and green throughout. Sea beaches, 

 rare, Upper Sonoran Zone, Monterey to San Miguel Island, California. Type locality: San Miguel Island. 



30, Oenothera pterosperma S. Wats. Wing-seeded Primrose. Fig. 3437. 



Oenothera pterosperma S. Wats. Bot. King Expl. 112. pi. 14. 1871. 

 Chylismia pterosperma Small, Bull. Torrey Club 23: 193. 1896. 

 Sphaerostigma pterospermum A. Nels. Bot. Gaz. 40: 63. 1905. 



Annual, low, 5-12 cm. tall, erect, simple or with few open branches ; stem slender, pilose 

 below, finely glandular above. Leaves oblong- to ovate-lanceolate, often with a "shoulder" on 



