Backlit Evening Primrose

This is one of the morning flowers that I see in the early spring on my morning walks in the desert.

Oenothera deltoides is a species of... more

by Robert Bales

Title

Backlit Evening Primrose

Artist

Robert Bales

Medium

Photograph - Photo

Description

This is one of the morning flowers that I see in the early spring on my morning walks in the desert.

Oenothera deltoides is a species of evening primrose known by several common names, including birdcage evening primrose, basket evening primrose, lion in a cage, and devil's lantern. It is native to the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it grows in sandy habitats from desert to beach.
The plant is grayish with basal, deltoid leaves. The large white flowers turn pinkish as they mature. When the plants die, the stems curl upward and form the "birdcage" for which the common name is derived.

There are five subspecies. One of these, the Antioch Dunes Evening Primrose (ssp. howellii), is a federally listed endangered species known from a few sandy spots in the Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Refuge just inland from the San Francisco Bay Area in California.
This bushlike, sweet-scented annual is most often a grayish green, creeping dune plant growing 2 to 18 inches high and spreading as wide as 40 inches.
Sparse, pale green, hairy leaves grow as long as 4 inches, mostly on the ends of stalks emerging from a dense basal rosette. The long,oval leaves are often lobed, toothed, grooved or cleft.

Uploaded

November 6th, 2013