Common eveningprimrose – Oenothera biennis

common evening-primrose plant with bright yellow flowers.

Common eveningprimrose – Oenothera biennis

Oenothera biennis L.

Onagraceae (Eveningprimrose family)

MI Status

Native

Life cycle

Usually an erect biennial or winter annual. Occasionally, a summer annual.

Leaves

Alternate, narrow oval-shaped, smooth to slightly wavy leaf margins, with distinctive pink to white midveins. Leaves initially develop from a basal rosette.

Stems

Erect, semiwoody, approaching 5 feet in height. Stems usually branch only at the top and may be visible through the winter.

Flowers and fruit

Flowers are yellow, attached to fused sepals forming a tube, and found in terminal spikes. Seed capsules are woody, cylinder-shaped, and thickest near the bottom.

Reproduction

Seeds.

Similar weeds

Cutleaf eveningprimrose (O. laciniata Hill)
Differs by having a prostrate to moderately erect, branching stem; wavy and coarsely toothed leaves; yellow to reddish flowers in the upper and middle leaf axils; and linear, cylinder-shaped seed capsules.

Eveningprimrose flower with yellow petals. — Eveningprimrose flower

Eveningprimrose plant with alternate, narrow oval-shaped leaves. They have smooth to slightly wavy leaf margins. — Eveningprimrose plant

Eveningprimrose in the initial rosette form. The blades are oblong with distinct white midveins on the upper surface. — Eveningprimrose rosette

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