Semi-desert, foothills. Wet areas disturbed areas. Spring, summer, fall.
Above and left: Carpenter Trail, Cortez, September 22, 2018.

As the top three photos above show, Oenothera curtiflora is a weedy, awkward-looking plant. It can spread widely or grow in a narrow column and it can be relatively easy to pick out or it can fade into the host of vegetation in which it is often found.

As the photographs immediately above and to the left show, the plant also has its side of delicate beauty in its lovely, intricate flowers.

The photograph above shows tiny flower buds clustering tightly by the dozens at the tip of the flowering branch. The buds grow and spread along the flowering stem as little green knobs, and eventually (as the photograph at left also shows) they fully open with minute 1.5-3 mm long petals (the pink scoops spreading at right angles to the 8 stamens and one style).

The pink and yellow-white calyx lobes bend downward ("reflex") over the hypanthium, the structure formed by the fusion of the base of the sepals, petals, and stamens. Below the hypanthium is the ovary, several of which you see in the lower half of the photograph at left--  and along the entire stem of the last photograph on this page.

Oenothera curtiflora is an annual (sometimes biennial) that typically grows in wetlands, roadsides, and disturbed areas. It can start flowering in late spring and, as these photographs show, it can flower into the fall.

For over a century it was thought that the species had been discovered in the early 1830s by David Douglas (of Douglas Fir fame) on the "sandy banks of the Walla Walla River". Douglas named the species Gaura parviflora and that name was published in Hooker's Flora Boreali-Americana in 1832. It was later found, however, that the great botanist, Edwin James had named this plant Gaura mollis and had validly published a description of this species in 1823. That name was accepted until Wagner and Hoch re-examined the species and placed it in the Oenothera genus in 2007.

The Latin specific epithet "curtiflora" means "short flowers".

Oenothera curtiflora. Synonym: Gaura mollis, Gaura parviflora, Oenothera curtifolia. (Velvetweed)
Onagraceae (Evening Primrose Family)

Semi-desert, foothills. Wet areas. Spring, summer, fall.
Carpenter Trail, Cortez, September 22, 2018.

Stems have short spreading hairs and even shorter masses of glandular hairs. Both glow in the sunlight.

Stem leaves range from 2-10 cm long 2-42 mm wide and can be lanceolate (as shown), elliptic, or oblong.

Basal leaves and lower spreading branches drop as the plant grows to 5 or 6 feet and spreads to four feet wide.

Oenothera curtiflora. Synonym: Gaura mollis, Gaura parviflora, Oenothera curtifolia. (Velvetweed)
Onagraceae (Evening Primrose Family)

Semi-desert, foothills. Wet areas. Spring, summer, fall.
Carpenter Trail, Cortez, September 22, 2018.

Dozens of seed pods remain on one of the many branches of this 5 foot tall plant after a good flowering season. Each seed pod contains three or four seeds.

Notice that the lower (most mature) seed pods are reflexed, the upper seed pods are vertical and tightly pressed against the stem.

Range map © John Kartesz,
Floristic Synthesis of North America

State Color Key

Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state

County Color Key

Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Native species, but adventive in state
Eradicated
Questionable presence

Range map for Oenothera curtiflora