Oenothera avita subsp. californica

Family: Onagraceae · Type: perennial · Native

California evening primrose is a California native perennial found in central and western California, southern California, and the southern desert mountains including the Little San Bernardino Mountains in sandy or gravelly areas, coastal-sage scrub, chaparral, and oak woodland at elevations below 1,900 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces yellow flowers with distinctive oblong to lanceolate leaves that range from nearly entire to deeply wavy-dentate. Growing with green to slightly gray stems that do not form new rosettes at their tips, it displays a variable appearance with either minimal or dense short appressed hairs. Its leaves are cauline, oblong to lanceolate in shape, presenting a subtle variation in texture and edge characteristics. The fruit develops 30 to 55 millimeters long, adding to the plant's distinctive structural profile.

Habitat: Sandy or gravelly areas, open, coastal-sage scrub, chaparral, oak woodland

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: < 1900 m

Bioregions: c&amps CW, SW, s DMtns (Little San Bernardino Mtns)

California counties: Kern, San Bernardino, Ventura, Orange, Riverside, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Inyo, Mono, Santa Barbara

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.