These delicate little flowers can easily pass unnoticed, but there may be thousands of them along a woodland trail. These plants were growing in Bird Park, Mount Lebanon. Whether the plant is properly Circaea lutetiana or Circaea canadensis is a question we leave to botanists; in many classifications the species are separate, but the USDA PLANTS database recognizes only Circaea lutetiana.
For a description of the species, see the Circaea lutetiana reference page.
Formerly in its own genus as Gaura biennis. This is an unusual flower here, but locally abundant, as it was here along the Montour Trail in Moon Township, where it grew in several large stands on the bank of a ditch along the trail. Botanical references often tell us it prefers dry soil, but the two stands Father Pitt has photographed were both in decidedly damp places. The curious flowers make as much of a show with their stamens as with their four petals.
This is either Circaea lutetiana or Circaea canadensis or Circaea lutetiana ssp. canadensis. Some botanists consider the North American populations to be a separate species from the European ones, but others—like the USDA PLANTS Database—put them together as one species, or make the North American ones a subspecies of the European species.
At any rate, it is a charming little flower that can bloom in deep shade. The flowers are tiny, but unusually shaped, and deserve a closer look. The neat habit of the plant makes it suitable for shade gardens, and it is becoming popular among native-plant enthusiasts.
These plants were photographed in Bird Park, Mount Lebanon, where the species is abundant.
For a description of the species, see the Circaea lutetiana reference page.
A tall and stately weed whose flowers we almost never get to see in their full glory. It’s a night-bloomer, opening at dusk and fading in the early hours of the morning. It will, however, stay open on a rainy day; we found this plant blooming merrily out of a sidewalk crack on the South Side Slopes.
Flowers. Pale yellow; four broad petals; cross-shaped anther in the middle; borne in branching racemes.
Leaves. Lanceolate, sessile, slightly toothed; net-veined, with center rib often reddish toward base; alternate; thick on the stem, with branches or abortive branches in axils; mostly smooth.
Stem. Stout; somewhat sticky; woody below, with dark brownish stripes; to 6 feet or more; much branched.
At one time this plant was placed in a genus Onagra, from which the family Onagraceae was named; but Gray and most modern botanists make that genus part of Oenothera.
Gray describes the genus and the species:
ONAGRA (Adans.) Ser. Stigma-lobes linear, elongated; flower-buds upright; petals yellow; fruit subcylindrical, elongated; seeds in 2 rotos in each cell; caulescent annuals or biennials.
O. biennis L. (COMMON E.) Rather stout, erect, 3-15 dm. high, usually simple, more or less spreading-pubescent to hirsute; leaves lanceolate to oblong or rarely ovate-lanceolate, repandly denticulate, acute or acuminate; bracts lanceolate, shorter than or scarcely exceeding the capsules; calyx-tube 2.5-3.5 cm. long; petals yellow, obovate, 1.5-2.5 cm. long; pods more or less hirsute, narrowed almost from the base, 2-3.5 cm. long. (Onagra Scop.) —Open places, common.
In cool weather it is sometimes possible to catch an Evening Primrose open in the middle of the day, though the flowers usually close by the middle of the morning. In an earlier article, we gave this description of it:
A tall and stately weed whose flowers we almost never get to see in their full glory. It’s a night-bloomer, opening at dusk and fading in the early hours of the morning.
Flowers. Pale yellow; four broad petals; cross-shaped anther in the middle; borne in branching racemes.
Leaves. Lanceolate, sessile, slightly toothed; net-veined, with center rib often reddish toward base; alternate; thick on the stem, with branches or abortive branches in axils; mostly smooth.
Stem. Stout; somewhat sticky; woody below, with dark brownish stripes; to 6 feet or more; much branched.
