California evening primrose is a coarse-stemmed perennial 4"-20" high with branches prostrate or rising at an angle, and stems with appressed hairs and exfoliating bark. The leaves are variable, rosetted when young, later oblanceolate to spatulate toward the base, and oblong to lanceolate above, entire to wavy-margined and toothed.  The flowers are large and showy, white aging to pink, and on short petioles in the leaf axils, and typically open in the evening.  The flowering buds are nodding.  There are four petals to 1-1/4" long, orbicular to obovate, and each flower has eight stamens and a four-lobed stigma.  The fruit is a cylindric seed capsule, straight or curved, 3/4" to 2" long with smooth, obovoid brown seeds with dark spots in a single row per chamber.  California evening primrose grows in mostly sandy dry places below 6000' in coastal sage scrub, chaparral, southern oak woodland, dunes, and desert scrub to pinyon-juniper or ponderosa pine woodlands, blooming from April to June.  There are three subspecies in southern California.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Oenothera 2) californica.
Pronunciation: ee-no-THEER-a ka-li-FOR-ni-ka.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.