Woody-Fruited Evening Primrose

Woody-Fruited Primrose

Woody-fruited Evening Primrose (Oenothera xylocarpa) is a beautiful plant to come across in while hiking in the wild and they are blooming like crazy right now in the southern part of Mount Rose wilderness. I love their soft, delicate petals that look as if they've been made of fine, yellow tissue paper. They have long distinctive anthers and a large, cross shaped stigma. The fruit is a straight, curving, or twisting capsule which may be up to 9 centimeters long.

Woody-Fruited Primrose flower

Their leaves are a gray-green with little purple splotches all over them. They are oblancolate with small lobes near the base. The leaves grow along the ground while the flowers spring up from the axils of the leaves. Woody-fruited primroses are perennial and grow from a thick taproot.

Woody-Fruited Primrose leaves