Gaura decorticans Hooker & Arnott, Bot. Beechey Voy., 343. 1839; Camissonia boothii (Douglas) P. H. Raven subsp. decorticans (Hooker & Arnott) P. H. Raven; C. boothii var. decorticans (Hooker & Arnott) Cronquist; C. boothii subsp. rutila (Davidson) Munz; Oenothera alyssoides Hooker & Arnott var. decorticans (Hooker & Arnott) Jepson; O. boothii Douglas subsp. decorticans (Hooker & Arnott) Munz; O. boothii subsp. rutila (Davidson) Munz; O. decorticans (Hooker & Arnott) Greene; O. decorticans var. rutila (Davidson) Munz; O. rutila Davidson; Sphaerostigma decorticans (Hooker & Arnott) Small; S. rutilum (Davidson) Parish

Herbs glabrate to strigillose, sometimes also glandular puberulent in inflorescence. Stems stout, hollow, 12–65 cm. Leaves primarily clustered toward base, 2–11 × 0.3–2(–3) cm; petiole 0–4.2 cm; blade lanceolate, sometimes narrowly ovate or elliptic proximally, margins entire or denticulate. Inflorescences ± open. Flowers: floral tube 4–6 mm; petals usually white, rarely red, 3.5–5 mm. Capsules nearly straight, curved outward, tapering abruptly distally, 1.7–2.3 mm diam. near base. Seeds dimorphic.

Flowering Feb–Jun(–Jul). Open, usually steep slopes, shale or other loose rocky sites; 0–1900 m; Calif.

Subspecies decorticans is known from the southern Sierra Nevada Foothills, Tehachapi Mountain area, southern San Joaquin Valley, San Francisco Bay area, Inner South Coast Ranges, and Western Transverse Ranges.

Subspecies decorticans intergrades with subsp. desertorum. Occasional populations of subsp. decorticans at relatively high elevations in the southern part of its range have somewhat smaller flowers and red petals; they have been distinguished as Oenothera rutila or, more recently, O. boothii subsp. rutila. P. H. Raven (1969) saw no evidence that the various populations with this combination of characteristics had a common origin and, even if they did, they do not appear to constitute a major geographical race comparable with the other subspecies of Eremothera boothii.