Taprooted annual or short-lived perennial herb usually with basal rosette; stems erect to decumbent, 5-50 cm long, usually branched, sparsely to moderately strigillose or villous, with glandular hairs above. Cauline leaves narrowly obovate to narrowly elliptic, 2-10 cm long, lobed, dentate or sometimes subentire. Flowers few in upper axils; floral tube 15-35 mm, curved upward in young buds; sepals 5-15 mm, with distinct tips 1-3 mm; petals 5-13(-20) mm, pale yellow or yellow fading pale orange; anthers 2-6 mm long; pollen ca. 50% fertile; stigma surrounded by anthers at anthesis. Capsule cylindrical or tapered toward apex, 25-50 mm long. Seeds in 2 rows per locule, ellipsoid to subglobose, 0.8-1.8 mm; surface pitted. 2n = 14. Flowers Apr-Sep; fruit May-Nov.
TAIPEI: Pali, Leu 1013; Wanli, Wang 969. ILAN: Tongkang, Peng 7740; Pailing, Taipingshan, Lin 2. TAOYUAN: Tayuan, Peng 7725; Kuanyin, Leu 1718. HSINCHU: Yulochi, Peng 13677. TAICHUNG: Tachiachi, Chingshui, Wang 1241.
Native to eastern N America; along with O. biennis and O. stricta, the most widely naturalized species in the genus, found in Asia, Europe, Australia, the Pacific Islands, S America, and southern Africa. In Taiwan common in northern sandy seashore or disturbed open places in the lowland, with an exceptional collection from Taipingshan at ca. 1300m alt. Oenothera laciniata is a self-compatible, autogamous, permanent structural heterozygotic species.
