Oenothera micrantha Hornemann ex Sprengel var. ignota Jepson, Man. Fl. Pl. Calif., 684. 1925; Camissonia ignota (Jepson) P. H. Raven; O. hirta Link var. ignota (Jepson) Munz; O. ignota (Jepson) Munz

Herbs annual, strigillose, usually also sparsely villous, often also glandular puberulent distally. Stems arising from base, usually decumbent, rarely with only 1, erect stem, 10–55 cm. Leaves 1.5–7 × 0.3–1.3 cm; petiole (0–)0.2–2.5 cm, petiolate distally; blade narrowly lan­ce­o­late, lanceolate, or narrowly elliptic, base attenuate, margins serrulate, apex acute. Flowers opening near sunrise; floral tube (1.1–)1.8–3 mm; sepals 2.6–5.5 mm; petals yellow, sometimes red-dotted near base, (3–)4–8 mm; episepalous filaments (1.2–)2.5–3.6 mm, epipetalous filaments (1–)1.3–2 mm, anthers (0.6–)0.8–1.6 mm, less than 5% of pollen grains 4- or 5-pored; style (3–)4.5–7 mm, stigma surrounded by anthers at anthesis. Capsules very slender, usually much contorted, irregularly to 5-coiled, rarely simply flex­uous, terete in living material, 4-angled when dry, 20–30 × 0.8–1 mm. Seeds 1.2–1.3 mm. 2n = 14.

Flowering (Jan–)Mar–Apr(–Aug). Clay or sandy soils, flats and slopes in coastal sage scrub or chap­arral, sandy soils in mountains; 100–1100(–1500) m; Calif.; Mexico (Baja California).

Camissoniopsis ignota is most common in clay fields and slopes at low elevations, but occasional on sandy soil and higher in the mountains in the Coast Ranges and bordering valleys from Yolo County, California, south to the southern end of the Sierra San Miguel, in Baja California, usually away from the immediate coast and barely reaching the margins of the desert. P. H. Raven (1969) determined C. ignota to be self-compatible and primarily autogamous.