Oenothera flava(A.Nelson) Garrett

yellow evening primrose

WFO wfo-0001087529 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Oenothera flava, photographed by Trystan Harpold
fig. a Trystan Harpold, CC BY 4.0 / 2019-06-22 / obs. 42794277
Oenothera flava, photographed by Juan Cruzado Cortés
fig. b Juan Cruzado Cortés, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 57915413
Oenothera flava, photographed by Craig Martin
fig. c Craig Martin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 21477266
Oenothera flava, photographed by José Belem Hernández Díaz
fig. d José Belem Hernández Díaz, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 18948364
Oenothera flava, photographed by Brian Finzel
fig. e Brian Finzel, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 176095444
Oenothera flava, photographed by Gordon C. Snelling
fig. f Gordon C. Snelling, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 22913679
Oenothera flava, photographed by Luke Padon
fig. g Luke Padon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 140008010
Oenothera flava, photographed by Matt Berger
fig. h Matt Berger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 139853936

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 22 botanical countries

Regions where Oenothera flava is native: Alberta, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Manitoba, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming AlbertaArizonaCaliforniaColoradoIdahoManitobaMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SouthwestMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew MexicoNorth DakotaOregonSaskatchewanSouth DakotaUtahWashingtonWyoming
Native distribution of Oenothera flava, 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 Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southwest MXS
Montana MNT
Nebraska NEB
Nevada NEV
New Mexico NWM
North Dakota NDA
Oregon ORE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
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 34 in flower of 42 examined

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Oenothera flava 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. 34 of 42 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 8 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 10 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 flava A.Nelson
  • Lavauxia hamata Wooton & Standl.
  • Lavauxia palustris Rose
  • Lavauxia taraxacoides Wooton & Standl.
  • Oenothera flava subsp. taraxacoides (Wooton & Standl.) W.L.Wagner
  • Oenothera hamata (Wooton & Standl.) Tidestr.
  • Oenothera murdockii S.L.Welsh & N.D.Atwood
  • Oenothera taraxacifolia var. ecristata (M.E.Jones) H.Lév. & Guffroy
  • Oenothera taraxacoides Munz
  • Oenothera triloba var. ecristata M.E.Jones

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.