Oenothera cespitosa

Fragrant evening-primrose

Family: Onagraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Fragrant evening-primrose is a California native perennial found in rocky or open habitats at moderate elevations. Flowering from late spring to summer, this plant produces large white flowers up to 5.6 centimeters long with delicate, luminous petals. Growing with sprawling stems less than 20 centimeters tall, it forms a distinctive woody caudex with new shoots emerging from lateral roots. Its leaves are notably large, ranging from 1.7 to 36 centimeters long, with oblanceolate to narrowly elliptic shapes and irregularly dentate or lobed edges. The fruit is cylindric to elliptic-ovate, with a distinctive tubercled surface measuring 4 to 9 millimeters wide.

California counties: San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Inyo, Lassen, Plumas, Siskiyou, Mono, Riverside

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