Common Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis)

August 25^th. The Common Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis) is the last of the Oenothera sp. to bloom each year. They usually appear as individual or clusters of tall, slender stems covered with blooms along roads. This plant, however, caught my attention because it was a bush with many branches.

Several flowers at the top of the bush.

The bush. It was about 6 feet tall. Its stem was approximately 1.5 inches at the base and it had many branches.

The flowers are approximately 1 inch across with 4 petals that are notched at their tips and 8 stamens. 

Its 4 sepals are reflexed (bent back) against the stem. 

Its leaves (photographed on a different plant) are lanceolate and arranged alternately along the stem. 

This bush was growing next to a barbed wire fence where it escaped the autumn roadside mowing. I’m looking forward to enjoying it for many years to come - although it may be removed when the bridge on GA-11 over the Apalachee River is replaced in a couple of years.

Identification resources:  

- Native and Naturalized Plants of the Carolinas and Georgia. Oenothera biennis (Common Evening Primrose)