Oenothera brachycarpaA.Gray

shortfruit evening primrose

WFO wfo-0001087517 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Oenothera brachycarpa, photographed by Reid Hardin
fig. a Reid Hardin, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-17 / obs. 200607765
Oenothera brachycarpa, photographed by Reid Hardin
fig. b Reid Hardin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199880303
Oenothera brachycarpa, photographed by Reid Hardin
fig. c Reid Hardin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 123063560
Oenothera brachycarpa, photographed by Eric Knight
fig. d Eric Knight, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 122717718
Oenothera brachycarpa, photographed by Eric Knight
fig. e Eric Knight, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 81456290
Oenothera brachycarpa, photographed by Bob Nieman
fig. f Bob Nieman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 74485645
Oenothera brachycarpa, photographed by Annika Lindqvist
fig. g Annika Lindqvist, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 29730813
Oenothera brachycarpa, photographed by Cecelia Alexander
fig. h Cecelia Alexander, CC0 1.0 / obs. 15276145

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 5 botanical countries

Regions where Oenothera brachycarpa is native: Arizona, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, New Mexico, Texas ArizonaMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestNew MexicoTexas
Native distribution of Oenothera brachycarpa, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Arizona ARI NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
New Mexico NWM
Texas TEX

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 14 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Lavauxia brachycarpa (A.Gray) Britton
  • Lavauxia graminifolia (H.Lév.) Rose
  • Lavauxia wrightii (A.Gray) Small
  • Megapterium brachycarpum (A.Gray) Rydb.
  • Megapterium brachycarpum var. wrightii (A.Gray) Moldenke
  • Oenothera australis (Wooton & Standl.) Tidestr.
  • Oenothera brachycarpa var. stenophylla H.Lév.
  • Oenothera brachycarpa var. typica Munz
  • Oenothera brachycarpa var. wrightii (A.Gray) H.Lév.
  • Oenothera cespitosa subsp. australis (Wooton & Standl.) Munz
  • Oenothera cespitosa var. australis Munz
  • Oenothera graminifolia H.Lév.
  • Oenothera wrightii A.Gray
  • Pachylophus australis Wooton & Standl.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.