Species
+

Oenothera biennis L.

Common Evening Primrose, Common Evening-primrose, Common evening primrose, Evening Primose

Climate known 71 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Oenothera biennis, the common evening-primrose, is a species of flowering plant in the family Onagraceae, native to eastern and central North America, from Newfoundland west to Alberta, southeast to Florida, and southwest to Texas, and widely naturalized elsewhere in temperate and subtropical regions. Evening primrose oil is produced from the plant.

Text from Wikipedia, “Oenothera biennis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Oenothera

Oenothera is a genus of about 160 species of herbaceous flowering plants native to the Americas. The genus includes the plants known as common evening primrose, narrow-leaved sundrops and white gaura. It is the type genus of the family Onagraceae. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Oenothera”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Onagraceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba +52
Wild records
348 in range· 82 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Jul, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1126mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 107 mm (CHELSA)
Light
10–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1126 mm a year, wettest July at 107 mm, driest February at 72 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -16.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Brunerya biennis (L.) Bubani, 1899; Brunyera biennis (L.) Bubani; Oenothera beckeri Renner; Oenothera biennis f. biennis; Oenothera biennis f. leptomeres (Bartlett) P.D.Sell and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (798 mm of 1126 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 25.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to May.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1126 mm a year, wettest July at 107 mm, driest February at 72 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1126 mm a year at the habitat, 798 mm of it April to November. Wettest month July at 107 mm, driest February at 72 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 859 mm to 1392 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 7, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -16.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -16.2 °C, the absolute minimum -24.9 °C, about 127 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -6.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells -14.2 °C to -0.4 °C), warmest day 27.4 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -16.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 1 °C in Jan to 27 °C in Jul; mean night from -7 °C in Jan to 18 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1126 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 318 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -24.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost32.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-24.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 10–40RH 56–61 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 318 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C1 / -5–83 / -3–108 / 2–1514 / 8–2020 / 15–2525 / 20–2927 / 23–3126 / 22–3122 / 18–2616 / 12–209 / 4–143 / -3–8
Night °C-7 / -14–-0-6 / -12–1-2 / -7–44 / 0–910 / 6–1415 / 11–1918 / 15–2218 / 15–2114 / 11–178 / 5–113 / -2–6-3 / -10–1
Rain mm78 / 34–11972 / 38–11587 / 52–12595 / 71–120102 / 82–128104 / 86–124107 / 79–12698 / 77–11898 / 81–11699 / 70–12395 / 62–12691 / 47–133
DLI13 / 10–1519 / 16–2126 / 24–2832 / 30–3537 / 35–3940 / 38–4239 / 37–4134 / 32–3727 / 24–3019 / 16–2313 / 9–1710 / 7–14
RH %61 / 56–6559 / 55–6457 / 55–6156 / 55–5957 / 55–6058 / 57–6158 / 57–6259 / 58–6259 / 57–6259 / 56–6159 / 57–6361 / 57–65

Each figure is the median across the 318 grid cells holding the 336 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 966:2152 (41.675, -72.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -24.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -16.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 318 distinct grid cells holding the 336 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 966:2152 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 41.50_-72.500, lapse-corrected +92 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 180 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward I., Québec, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, California, Nevada, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, District of Columbia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast· introduced: Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Corse, France, Portugal, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Canary Is., Madeira, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Northern Provinces, Altay, Buryatiya, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, West Siberia, Amur, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Primorye, Sakhalin, Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Transcaucasus, Iran, Palestine, China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Bangladesh, India, West Himalaya, Myanmar, Tasmania, Hawaii, Newfoundland, Colorado, New Mexico, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central
Kew's description“biennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker40.687, -74.021 · in the densest population, 110 records (32% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 348 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 82 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 30 km away. 1443 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 12 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 348 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Oenothera biennisOenothera biennisOenothera biennisOenothera biennisOenothera biennisOenothera biennisOenothera biennisOenothera biennis

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Andrew Conboy, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Sandy Wolkenberg, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Oenothera biennis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Insect Herbivores Drive Real-Time Ecological and Evolutionary Change in Plant Populations
Anurag A. Agrawal, Amy P. Hastings, Marc T. J. Johnson, John L. Maron (2012) · Science
Additive and interactive effects of plant genotypic diversity on arthropod communities and plant fitness
Marc T. J. Johnson, Marc J. Lajeunesse, Anurag A. Agrawal (2005) · Ecology Letters
A direct comparison of the consequences of plant genotypic and species diversity on communities and ecosystem function
Susan C. Cook‐Patton, Scott H. McArt, Amy L. Parachnowitsch, Jennifer S. Thaler (2010) · Ecology
Usage of Plant Food Supplements across Six European Countries: Findings from the PlantLIBRA Consumer Survey
Alicia García-Álvarez, Bernadette Egan, Simone de Klein, Lorena Dima (2014) · PLoS ONE
Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis) Biological Activity Dependent on Chemical Composition
Magdalena Timoszuk, Katarzyna Bielawska, Elźbieta Skrzydlewska (2018) · Antioxidants
Systematic review: the efficacy of herbal therapy in inflammatory bowel disease
S.S.M. Ng, Yat-Wah Lam, Kelvin Tsoi, Francis K.L. Chan (2013) · Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Oenothera 8 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 254 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.