Oenothera affinis Cambess.
Annual, or possibly biennial, taprooted herb. Stems < 50 cm tall, branched, with dense glandular and white eglandular pilose hairs. Rosette lvs densely hairy, soon dying. Cauline lvs with short indistinct petioles; lamina 4-11 × 0.7-1.5 cm, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, entire or remotely denticulate, densely clothed in short, glandular hairs, and with scattered long white, patent, eglandular hairs; base attenuate; apex mucronate. Fls distant along stem. Floral tube 8-9 cm long, very slender, with hairs as on lvs. Buds lanceolate, erect. Sepals 2-3.5 cm long, white-pilose; apices mucronate, divergent. Petals c. 3 cm long, broad-obovate, yellow. Style exserted by c. 2 cm. Capsule c. 2 cm long, ± clavate, ribbed, with hairs as on lvs. Seeds 1.5-2 mm long, ± ellipsoid.
S.: Christchurch.
S. America 1966
Railway yard.
FL Apr-Jun.
Small colonies of O. affinis were found near sleepers imported from Australia, where it is also wild. The very long floral tube enables this sp. to be recognised immediately. It has been previously recorded in N.Z. as O. longiflora.
