Primrose Wildflowers

Although we have yet to receive a good drenching rain as of this writing (Easter weekend), some native wildflowers are blooming. One of my favorites is Pink Evening Primrose (Oenothera speciosa) that forms pink drifts along busy roadsides.

Other names for Oenothera speciosa include Mexican Evening Primrose, Pink lady, Buttercup, and Pink Buttercup. They say that some people call them Buttercups because if you put the flower up to your nose to smell you will get yellow pollen on your nose.

These native perennials are about a foot tall and the individual flower is about 2 inches across. Each flower has four petals, 8 anthers with pollen and a distinctive white stigma that rises above the petals and forms an “x”.

The “evening” part of the name comes from the fact that many Oenothera open in the evening. But here in Texas the Pink Evening Primrose flowers open in the morning and stay open all day. They say Oenothera speciosa that grow further north open later in the day.

Pink Evening Primroses grow in the sun but can tolerate some shade. They spread by rhizomes and can form large mats. They also make seeds that can form new plants if the flowers are not mown before the seeds mature. Deer do eat them but on busy highways the flowers can escape being consumed.

Another Oenothera plant that flowers locally this time of year is Stemless Evening Primrose (Oenothera triloba.) This one is very short and bright yellow. I see it early in the morning in ditches before it closes for the day.

Cut leaf Evening Primrose (Oenothera lacin iata) is a weedy 2-10” in tall plant with small yellow (½ inch) flowers that blooms off and on all summer. The Missouri Primrose (Oenothera macrocarpa) does well in our area and will bloom later in the season. We are lucky to have so many Oenothera species that grow in Central Texas.

Written by Jackie Mattice, Hays County Master Naturalist