Plant Name
Scientific Name: Oenothera primiveris
Common Names: Desert Evening Primrose, Bottle Evening-primrose, Yellow Desert Evening Primrose
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Annual
Growth Habit: Herb/Forb
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert
Flower Color: Buttery yellow, Pinkish orange (when old and wilted)
Flowering Season: Winter (late), Spring
Height: To only 4 inches (10 cm) tall
Description: The flowers are nocturnal and open in the evening and then close the following morning. The flowers are up to 2 inches (5 cm) across and have 4 broad, notched, heart-shaped petals that turn a pinkish color as they age and wilt. The leaves are solid grayish green to variably spotted with red-brown, oblanceolate in shape, deeply toothed or pinnately lobed except near the leaf tips, and in a flattened basal rosette. The first leaves may not be lobed, while the later leaves are typically very deeply lobed.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Rosidae
Order: Myrtales
Family: Onagraceae – Evening Primrose family
Genus: Oenothera L. – evening primrose
Species: Oenothera primiveris A. Gray – desert evening primrose
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