黄花月见草 huang hua yue jian cao

Oenothera erythrosepala (Borbás) Borbás; Onagra erythrosepala Borbás.

Herbs erect, biennial to short-lived perennial, with basal rosette. Stems 50-150 cm tall, usually branched throughout, densely to very sparsely strigillose, with long suberect red pustulate-based hairs, and glandular hairs on inflorescence. Leaves dark to bright green, with inconspicuous veins, surface often crinkled, villous to strigillose, sessile to shortly petiolate; rosette blade 13-30 × 3-5 cm; cauline blade narrowly elliptic to lanceolate or oblanceolate, 5-15 × 2.5-4 cm, base attenuate to narrowly cuneate, margin remotely dentate, usually undulate toward base, apex acute to subobtuse. Inflorescence a dense unbranched spike. Flowers open near sunset; floral tube 3.5-5 cm. Sepals 2.8-4.5 cm, with free tips 5-8 mm, apical, erect or spreading. Petals yellow, fading to reddish orange, 3.5-5 cm. Anthers 1-1.2 cm; pollen ca. 50% fertile. Ovary densely to moderately villous, with long red pustulate-based hairs and dense glandular hairs; stigma elevated above anthers. Capsules green, narrowly lanceoloid, 2-3.5 cm, sessile. Seeds in two rows per locule, brown to dark brown, 1.3-2 mm, irregularly pitted, up to ca. 50% abortive. Fl. Jul-Sep(-Oct), fr. Aug-Oct. 2n = 14, permanent translocation heterozygote; self-compatible, usually outcrossing.

Open disturbed sites such as roadsides, gardens, fallow fields, and along railroad tracks; near sea level to 800 m. Anhui, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Afghanistan, India, Japan, Pakistan, Russia; Africa, SW Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America, Pacific islands (New Zealand)].

Oenothera glazioviana is not a native plant to any area in the usual sense, having originated via hybridization between two cultivated or naturalized species in a garden in Europe. It was introduced into the horticultural trade as early as 1860, grown for its particularly large, attractive flowers, and has become very widely naturalized.