Flora of New Zealand Series

evening primrose

Hairy biennial, taprooted herb. Stems to c. 1.5 m tall, branched, with dense short curly hairs, and scattered to numerous, long, dark red, bulbous-based hairs. Rosette lvs numerous, long-petiolate; petiole to 10 cm long; lamina mostly 7-25 × 2-7 cm, narrow- to broad-elliptic, sometimes ± obovate, with appressed hairs or glabrate; margins almost entire to denticulate, sinuate, ciliolate; base attenuate; apex acute. Cauline lvs, excluding uppermost, with petiole to 3 cm long and lamina usually more slender and tapering than in rosette lvs. Infl. spike often dense, simple or branched, with hairs as on stems. Fls crepuscular. Floral tube 2.5-4.5 cm long, with glandular and scattered pilose hairs, viscid, slender. Buds lanceolate, ± erect. Sepals 3.5-5 cm long, linear-lanceolate, ± reddish, with hairs as on hypanthium; apices mucronate, 5-10 mm long. Petals (3)-4-5.5 cm long, broad-obovate, bright or lemon yellow. Style exserted by 2.5-4 cm. Capsule (1.2)-1.7-2.5-(3) cm long, cylindric, widening slightly towards base, ribbed, mostly viscid but rarely eglandular. Seeds usually 1.5-2.2 mm long, often irregular, but sometimes ± oblong or lunate, sharply angled.

N.; S.: widely distributed from N. Auckland to Otago and Westland.

Origin unknown, possibly arose in cultivation in Europe 1940

A frequent escape from cultivation, mainly in waste places, especially where stony, near settlements, roadsides and riverbeds.

FL Dec-Apr.

O. glazioviana is generally more localised than O. stricta, the other widespread naturalised sp. The fls tend to be crepuscular, opening in the afternoon and withering the following morning. In N.Z. it has been wild for over a century but has been called by various names, especially O. erythrosepala and O. lamarckiana and has apparently been confused with O. biennis, O. grandiflora L'Hér and O. suaveolens Pers.