Oenothera parvifloraL.

Evening primrosenorthern evening primrose

WFO wfo-0000389667 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Oenothera parviflora, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. a Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-09-25 / obs. 159688379
Oenothera parviflora, photographed by Cecil Smith
fig. b Cecil Smith, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 153210719
Oenothera parviflora, photographed by mefisher
fig. c mefisher, CC0 1.0 / obs. 151722085
Oenothera parviflora, photographed by Yann Kemper
fig. d Yann Kemper, CC0 1.0 / obs. 150593033
Oenothera parviflora, photographed by Reuven Martin
fig. e Reuven Martin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 94542085
Oenothera parviflora, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. f Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 90202384
Oenothera parviflora, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. g Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 89180835
Oenothera parviflora, photographed by Damiano Oldoni
fig. h Damiano Oldoni, CC0 1.0 / obs. 51282694

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 32 botanical countries

Regions where Oenothera parviflora is native: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Newfoundland, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Prince Edward I., Québec, Rhode I., Saskatchewan, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin ConnecticutIndianaIowaKentuckyMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMissouriNew BrunswickNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNewfoundlandNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaNova ScotiaOhioOntarioPennsylvaniaPrince Edward I.QuébecSaskatchewanTennesseeVermontVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsin DelawareDistrict of ColumbiaRhode I.
Native distribution of Oenothera parviflora, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Connecticut CNT NORTHERN AMERICA
Delaware DEL
District of Columbia WDC
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kentucky KTY
Maine MAI
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Missouri MSO
New Brunswick NBR
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
Newfoundland NFL
North Carolina NCA
North Dakota NDA
Nova Scotia NSC
Ohio OHI
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Prince Edward I. PEI
Québec QUE
Rhode I. RHO
Saskatchewan SAS
Tennessee TEN
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS

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 176 in flower of 179 examined

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Oenothera parviflora 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. 176 of 179 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 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 57 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.

  • Oenothera ammophiloides var. flecticaulis (R.R.Gates) R.R.Gates
  • Oenothera ammophiloides var. parva (R.R.Gates) R.R.Gates
  • Oenothera angustifolia Mill.
  • Oenothera angustissima R.R.Gates
  • Oenothera angustissima var. quebecensis R.R.Gates
  • Oenothera apicaborta R.R.Gates
  • Oenothera atrovirens Shull & Bartlett
  • Oenothera biennis subsp. muricata Bonnier & Layens
  • Oenothera biennis var. cruciata (Nutt.) Torr. & A.Gray
  • Oenothera biennis var. parviflora (L.) Torr. & A.Gray
  • Oenothera biformiflora R.R.Gates
  • Oenothera biformiflora var. cruciata R.R.Gates
  • Oenothera cleistantha Shull & Bartlett
  • Oenothera communis f. parviflora (L.) H.Lév.
  • Oenothera communis var. cruciata (Nutt.) H.Lév.
  • Oenothera comosa R.R.Gates
  • Oenothera cruciata Nutt. ex G.Don
  • Oenothera cruciata var. cruciata
  • Oenothera cruciata var. sabulonensis Fernald
  • Oenothera cruciata var. varia de Vries
  • Oenothera deflexa R.R.Gates
  • Oenothera flecticaulis R.R.Gates
  • Oenothera hazelae var. parviflora R.R.Gates
  • Oenothera hazelae var. subterminalis (R.R.Gates) R.R.Gates

and 33 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. 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.