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Dot Lang's  WildFlower Notebook for east Wise County, Texas
Evening Primrose Family
Onagraceae

Current Work in Progress
|White |  | yellow/orange  |  |


 
White / Green : 
Gaura sulfata Engelm. 7 spring, fall
Blooms open in evening, white fading to pink as they age the next day. Some are pink to begin with. Taproot. lightly scented. Inflorescence is tight with floral buds. Mature fruit stands out away from stem.
Pubescent stems and leaves.

Seed pod forming
.Gaura sinuata Nutt 7 spring
Has whorls of crinkly edged leaves and forms large patches in the grass due to spreading by rhizones.  lightly scented. Inflorescence is loose, growing well above the first flowers. Perennial. Flowers tend to be light pink fading to a darker pink as they age.  Some are more white.  Base of floral stem forms a rosette of leaves.  Leaves may  form a whorl  about mid-way up the stem.on main floral stem.  Later, other floral stems arise from this whorl.   Fruit is long; hoping to get photos this year (2016).

Seed pod forming.  Note long attachment to stem before the swelling of the pod.
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Stenosiphon linifolius
Oenothera glaucifolia
False Gaura Spring, summer, fall may be short lived Perennial.  Watching this.
early blooms "Wands in the wind," as I call them,  Wispy, tall perennial starts blooming in spring but is more noticeable by August and September as the thin stems reach up to 6 ft or more (2 meters). Cluster of  blooms start low, staying within 3 " of the top as the stem grows, leaving the seed pods clinging to the stem like strung beads.
May 26 2015: Noted new plants in general area of these that may be this species.  Will be watching them for blooms this summer as I do not know what the leaves look like when young.   More notes below.

April 2013

This is how my large plant looked in Oct 2013

April 2013

Oct. 2014 

2014 fall 
warm rains started new growth and flowering.

Seeds clinging to stem
fall 2014
Spring growth May 2015 during wet month of May. Just the leaves showing. 
Already about 1 yard (1 meter) tall.

Getting ready to start flowering.
June 6, 2015

Close up of spring leaves.
Just started flowering this week, June 26.2015.

New seed pods forming in center
late June, 2015

Why I like this plant.
June 6, 2015:  They indeed are this species.  Lots sprouted up this year so the seed liked this year's conditions: very cold (teens), wet winter with a cool, wet spring.
Started blooming here around June 22 and already about 5 to 6 ft tall with more growth coming  Will spread seed in the front where I'd like to see them... as long as the grasshoppers don't eat the seeds.
mild winter Jan-March 2016 and some of my plants didn't die back to the roots this time.  As of March 26, they are putting out fresh leaves quite a ways up last summer's stems.
A host for a white&pink nocturnal moth, Schinia gaurae (Clouded Crimson) Catepillar mimicks markings of Monarch and some Swallowtails.

 
Oenothera speciosa Showy Evening Primrose spring east Wise County

Perennial, colors range from white to light  pink.  Usually see large patches  in medians and along shoulders of highways for a couple of months in the sping.  Will bloom in summer if enough rain falls.
2014, 2015- good spring showings

May 2015 US Hwy287

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Gaura parviflora small-Flower Gaura, Lizard tail Gaura,  Annual Abilene, Taylor County
also Wise County

found in Abilene, Taylor County

found in Abilene

white to pink, tiny flowers, pubescent stems and leaves. Seed capsules stick out from stem.
June 21 2015.
May 30, 2016 found 2 plants on my land. apparently brought in from lake flood waters.  Growing in the debris left at the edge of the flood.  May not last forever as this field is normally hot and dry.  Found another June 6, 2016.  Hope these leave plenty of seed.

Wise County


 
Yellow/Orange
Oenothera triloba Stemless Evening Primrose spring
Low plant to 10 inches. A winter annual according to the books. Sometimes called a dandelion because of it's cut leaves which form a ground hugging rosette like a dandelion plant.  Large blossoms 2  to 3" across, start opening in the late afternoon and closed by mid-morning. Blossoms only last 1 night but followed by more. Plant continues to flower into the summer as long as it has moisture. 
Have included a picture here of a dried out dead plant showing the cluster of winged seed pods that formed as the pods matured.
in Bud
spent bloom
spent bloom
flowering over, plant has put on new growth, rabbits munched away at edges I think. Dead plant skeleton is  woody as you can see in the photo at right.  The seed pods are very hard and closed, but it only takes some sitting in a puddle of water to get the pods to open and release their seeds.  Where it can flood for a day or so or in ditches, you may see  plants the next spring.  No flooding occured in 2013 on my place, no plants in 2014 but there are plenty of seed pods on dead plants in the ground just waitng for that next flood of water. May take a few years with the current drought
Woody dead plant skeleton 
At left is either a Monarch or a Swallowtail catepillar. UPDATE:  It's NEITHER.  IT becomes a MOTH, Shinia gaurae or Clouded Crimson white with pink markings, .  It was feeding on this Stemless Primrose. June 2013. October 2015, it's ID'd.  It feeds on members of the Primrose family, mainly the Gauras thus it's species name..
Maturing seed pods
These bloomed fairly well in April of 2015 before heavy rains and flooding in May 2015 which wiped them out for the year.  Hopefully enough seeds remain from previous years pods to have more next year.  Think I will get some of those pods and place them in spots they might like that won't flood for next year.  Update 2016, banner year for this plant on my land. Plenty of seeds started up over the winter to produce quite a patch of flowers.  However, spouse mangled a bunch when he mowed in that area in early June.

 
Oenathera macrocarpa Big-Fruit Evening Primrose spring Perennial
Perennial; large flowers to 5 inches.  Gets it's name from the  seedpod which is about 2 to 3 inches long with 4 large thin ribs forming wings about an inch wide..  They appear to be designed to catch the wind and roll the seed pod across the ground, scattering seed.  Seed pod still on plants opens at the top and graduallly forms a dried "flower" as the seeding progresses thru the summer. 3rd lake flood for 2015 spring damaged the plants.  May have lost one, maybe the other one.  The only one that has some stems living did not flower for 2015.  None growing there in 2016.  One left on property in a non-flood zone.  Many others growing in neighboring fields.  I will collect more seed.
Seed pods full size
May 16, 2014 (after harsh winter, late spring) not budding on my land yet, however, east facing slope 2 miles away on highway, they are blooming well in center divider. Finally bloomed in June.
Spring 2016, due to road construction, the divider population has been wiped out, but there are more about a mile or more north on that road, on the south shoulder.

Seedpod "flower" still attached to plant.

seeds showing inside pod

pic. take May 1 2015

 
2Oenothera laciniata Cutleaf Evening Primrose Spring, Annual
Height to 2 feet or sprawling on the ground.  Small  blooms, opening in the late afternoon and dying  the next day.  In the shade, blooms yellow.  pinkish sepals then spread back, clasping the stem as the petals wither. 4-petals as is typical of  the evening Primrose family.

flowers withering, turning peach color.

bud in upper right showing pistil below it.

carpels showing several pistils as flower is withering and dropping off.

 
Calylophus berlandieri 7 Sundrops, Day Primrose Spring, perennial
Perennial to 2 feet, Flowers at or near the top of stems.  Stems arise from the base of the plant.  Flowers are a bright, golden yellow.  Seems to be a host to red mites. Rocky, calcareous soil.

In bud.

in a small field with a bluestem grass background (last years (2014) grass stems turned red), and by a septic drainfield.

showing seedpods that have formed 

 
     
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 As ID'd from:
1 Wild Flowers of Texas book by Geyata Ajilvsgi, revised edition, 2003
2Lady Bird Johnson WildFlower Center website,
3Kansas State Wildflowers website.
4100 Texas Wildflowers by Dorothy Baird Mattiza for the Native Plant Society of Texas, 1993
5 Native Plant Society of Texas
6 Texas Wildflowers by Leo Meier & Jan Reid
7 Shiner & Mahler's Illustrated Flora of North Central Texas by Diggs, Lipscomb & O'Kennon, 1999
8  Google searches used to help verify and find more info
USDA website Plant Database

Wildflower Bibliography & Link page

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