TRIPLE HYBRID EVENING-PRIMROSE

Oenothera biennis × cambrica × glazioviana

Willowherb Family [Onagraceae]

month8jun month8june month8jul month8july month8aug month8sep month8sept

status
statusZneophyte
 		 flower
flower8yellow
 		 morph
morph8actino
 		 petals
petalsZ4
 		 stem
stem8round
 		 smell
smell8fragrant
fragrant

19th Aug 2017, dunes, Crosby Coastal Park, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
A triple hybrid between Common Evening-Primrose (Oenothera biennis) , Small Evening-primrose (Oenothera cambrica) and Large-Flowered Evening-Primrose (Oenothera glazioviana).


2nd Sept 2017, dunes, Crosby Coastal Park, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
There are still a few flower-buds to open at the top; the rest below on the spike have flowered and turned to fruit. Those stems with darkly coloured open fruits with white parts have already ripened.


19th Aug 2017, dunes, Crosby Coastal Park, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
A mostly-spent flowering spike with stiff ripening fruits around the lower parts. Leaves not crinkly on the upper part.


19th Aug 2017, dunes, Crosby Coastal Park, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
Un-opened flower-buds have faint pink stripes on the sepals enclosing them. The fruit capsules here have thinner red stripes (but not all do).


2nd Sept 2017, dunes, Crosby Coastal Park, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
The sepals are reflexed downwards when the flower has opened, with the faint pink stripes now being on the inside. The white withered flower to the left is about to drop off with its long spent flower stalk to leave the fruit capsules with a slight hole at the top.


19th Aug 2017, dunes, Crosby Coastal Park, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
In this triple hybrid the style is very much shorter than the stamens. This means that the plant is more likely not to fertilise itself, but rather other species of Evening-primrose plants in the vicinity, so it partakes in hybrid-swarm orgies too.


19th Aug 2017, dunes, Crosby Coastal Park, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
The style is here green, and 4-pronged as they are in all Evening-primroses.


19th Aug 2017, dunes, Crosby Coastal Park, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
But in this specimen the four prongs of the style are held together erect and half mingling with the anthers. Indeed, this specimen has yellow pollen spores from the anthers on the style and is therefore self-pollinating.


19th Aug 2017, dunes, Crosby Coastal Park, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
The top of the stem on this specimen is very red and it also has a few red and glandular hairs, but not as many as have the green parts of the fruit capsules.


19th Aug 2017, dunes, Crosby Coastal Park, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
Hairs with bulbous red glands on both red and green parts of the stem, less bulbous on the more mature fruit capsules.


19th Aug 2017, dunes, Crosby Coastal Park, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
Red bulbous based hairs on the fruit capsules and stems.


19th Aug 2017, dunes, Crosby Coastal Park, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
The red bases of hairs are larger in any red areas of the fruit capsules. (Capsules lower down have fewer glandular hairs).


19th Aug 2017, dunes, Crosby Coastal Park, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
Pale pink stripes on the flower-buds, the red areas of which sometimes have hairs with red bulbous bases.


2nd Sept 2017, dunes, Crosby Coastal Park, Sefton Coast. Photo: © RWD
Lower leaves are crinkly.

Easily confused with : other Evening-primroses (Oenothera) species.

Not to be semantically confused with : Fragrant Agrimony (Agrimonia procera), Fragrant-Orchid (Gymnadenia conopsea) [plants with similar names belonging to differing families]

Triple Hybrid Evening-primrose is a triple hybrid between: Small-flowered Evening-primrose (Oenothera cambrica), Common Evening-Primrose (Oenothera biennis) and Large-Flowered Evening-Primrose (Oenothera glazioviana),

Hybridizes in a (unique to the UK) way with : Evening-primrose (Small-flowered) (Oenothera cambrica), Evening-primrose (Intermediate) (Oenothera × fallax), Evening-Primrose (Common) (Oenothera biennis) and with any of their hybrids or itself to produce a 'hybrid swarm', whenever two (or more) of those are in proximity. Many of these hybrids have no common nor botanical name. See  Hybrid Swarms.

The identifying features to look out for in this species, Oenothera glazioviana are:

  • Flower buds: small with faint pink stripes
  • Flower size: small
  • Fruits: upper ones with bulbous glandular hairs, lower ones with fewer glandular hairs.
  • Lower leaves: crinkly

It grows on sand-dunes near the coast.

  Oenothera biennis x cambrica x glazioviana  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Onagraceae  

Distribution
family8Willowherb family8Onagraceae
 BSBI maps
genus8Oenothera
Oenothera
(Evening-Primroses)

TRIPLE HYBRID EVENING-PRIMROSE

Oenothera biennis × cambrica × glazioviana

Willowherb Family [Onagraceae]