Oenothera cavernae

Cave evening-primrose, Cave Evening-Primrose

Family: Onagraceae · Type: annual · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 2B.1

Cave evening-primrose is a rare (CNPS 2B.1) California native annual found in the eastern Clark Mountain Range and Ivanpah Valley in desert scrub and Joshua-tree woodland at elevations of 760 to 1,280 meters. Flowering from April to May, this plant produces white flowers that fade to pale pink, with blossoms up to 20 millimeters long. Growing with stems rarely exceeding 4 centimeters tall, emerging from a fleshy tapering taproot and often producing several lateral stems. Its oblanceolate to elliptic-oblanceolate leaves are 2.5 to 13 centimeters long, distinctively green to red-green with numerous scattered red-purple splotches and minutely glandular-hairy edges. The plant produces ellipsoid-ovoid fruits 12 to 38 millimeters long with distinctive tubercles or wavy ridges along the valve surfaces.

Habitat: Joshua-tree woodland, desert scrub in dry, gravelly (often calcareous) soils on slopes, cliffs, and ridges

Bloom period: Apr-May

Elevation: 760-1280 m

Bioregions: DMtns (e Clark Mtn Range, also base of range in Ivanpah Valley)

California counties: San Bernardino

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