Oenothera curtiflora
Plant species in the evening primrose family
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Oenothera curtiflora (syn. Gaura parviflora), known as velvetweed, velvety gaura, downy gaura, or smallflower gaura, is a species of flowering plant native to the central United States and northern Mexico, from Nebraska and Wyoming south to Durango and Nuevo Leon.[3]
| Oenothera curtiflora | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Myrtales |
| Family: | Onagraceae |
| Genus: | Oenothera |
| Species: | O. curtiflora |
| Binomial name | |
| Oenothera curtiflora W.L.Wagner & Hoch | |
| Synonyms[2] | |
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List
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Taxonomy
Oenothera curtiflora was long known as Gaura parviflora, this name being published in 1830 and for a long time considered the correct name for the species. However, an overlooked but validly published name G. mollis had been published earlier by Edwin James in 1823. A proposal was made to conserve the name G. parviflora over G. mollis,[4] and this was accepted by the International Botanical Congress Committee for Spermatophyta.[5] In 2007 it was moved to the genus Oenothera by Warren Lambert Wagner and Peter Coonan Hoch as Oenothera curtiflora.[2] The genus Gaura created by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 is a synonym of Oenothera according to Plants of the World Online (POWO).[6]
Oenothera curtiflora has 9 synonyms, six of them species, according to POWO.[2]
| Name | Year | Rank | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gaura australis Griseb. | 1879 | species | = het. |
| Gaura hirsuta Scheele | 1848 | species | = het. |
| Gaura micrantha (Spach) D.Dietr. | 1840 | species | = het. |
| Gaura mollis E.James | 1823 | species | = het., nom. utique rej. |
| Gaura parviflora Douglas ex Lehm. | 1830 | species | ≡ hom. |
| Gaura parviflora var. typica Munz | 1938 | variety | ≡ hom. |
| Gaura parviflora f. glabra Munz | 1938 | form | = het. |
| Gaura parviflora var. lachnocarpa Weath. | 1925 | variety | = het. |
| Schizocarya micrantha Spach | 1835 | species | = het. |
| Notes: ≡ homotypic synonym; = heterotypic synonym | |||
Description
It is an annual plant growing to 0.2–2 m (rarely 3 m) tall, unbranched, or if branched, only below the flower spikes. The leaves are 2–20 cm (0.79–7.87 in) long, lance-shaped, and are covered with soft hair. The flower spikes are 20–30 cm (7.9–11.8 in) long, covered with green flower buds, which open at night or before dawn with small flowers 5 mm (0.20 in) diameter with four pink petals.[7][8][9]
Uses
Among the Zuni people, fresh or dried root would be chewed by medicine man before sucking snakebite and poultice applied to wound.[10]
Introduction
It is naturalized and often invasive in other parts of the United States, and in Australia, China, Japan, and South America.[1][11][12]