Oenothera cespitosaNutt.

WFO wfo-0001087691 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Oenothera cespitosa, photographed by Laura Gaudette
fig. a Laura Gaudette, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-12 / obs. 205563466
Oenothera cespitosa, photographed by brunsonm
fig. b brunsonm, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203872387
Oenothera cespitosa, photographed by Casey H. Richart
fig. c Casey H. Richart, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202613640
Oenothera cespitosa, photographed by Casey H. Richart
fig. d Casey H. Richart, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202613801
Oenothera cespitosa, photographed by Casey H. Richart
fig. e Casey H. Richart, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202613567
Oenothera cespitosa, photographed by Casey H. Richart
fig. f Casey H. Richart, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 202613685
Oenothera cespitosa, photographed by Annika Lindqvist
fig. g Annika Lindqvist, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204729282
Oenothera cespitosa, photographed by Lauren Markewicz
fig. h Lauren Markewicz, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201247030

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 20 botanical countries

Regions where Oenothera cespitosa is native: Alberta, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Manitoba, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wyoming AlbertaArizonaCaliforniaColoradoIdahoManitobaMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew MexicoNorth DakotaOregonSaskatchewanSouth DakotaTexasUtahWashingtonWyoming
Native distribution of Oenothera cespitosa, 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
Alberta ABT NORTHERN AMERICA
Arizona ARI
California CAL
Colorado COL
Idaho IDA
Manitoba MAN
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
Nevada NEV
New Mexico NWM
North Dakota NDA
Oregon ORE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Texas TEX
Utah UTA
Washington WAS
Wyoming WYO

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.

Flowering 524 in flower of 604 examined

Peak flowering in Apr. Each bar is the share of Oenothera cespitosa observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 524 of 604 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 5 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 43 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.

  • Anogra longiflora A.Heller
  • Oenothera cespitosa f. albiflora H.Lév.
  • Oenothera cespitosa f. caulescens H.Lév.
  • Oenothera cespitosa subsp. crinita (Rydb.) Munz
  • Oenothera cespitosa subsp. eximia (A.Gray) Munz
  • Oenothera cespitosa subsp. jonesii (Munz) Munz
  • Oenothera cespitosa subsp. montana (Nutt. ex Torr. & A.Gray) Munz
  • Oenothera cespitosa subsp. purpurea (S.Watson) Munz
  • Oenothera cespitosa var. eximia (A.Gray) Munz
  • Oenothera cespitosa var. jonesii Munz
  • Oenothera cespitosa var. longiflora (A.Heller) Munz
  • Oenothera cespitosa var. macroglottis (Rydb.) Cronquist
  • Oenothera cespitosa var. marginata (Nutt. ex Hook. & Arn.) Durand
  • Oenothera cespitosa var. montana (Nutt.) Durand
  • Oenothera cespitosa var. navajoensis (W.L.Wagner, Stockh. & W.M.Klein) Cronquist
  • Oenothera cespitosa var. purpurea (S.Watson) Munz
  • Oenothera cespitosa var. stellae S.L.Welsh
  • Oenothera cespitosa var. typica Munz
  • Oenothera exigua A.Gray
  • Oenothera eximia A.Gray
  • Oenothera idahoensis Mulford
  • Oenothera marginata Nutt. ex Hook. & Arn.
  • Oenothera marginata var. purpurea S.Watson
  • Oenothera montana Nutt.

and 19 more.

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. 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.