Species
+

Oenothera elata Kunth

Hooker's Evening-Primrose, Hooker's evening primrose, Hooker's eveningprimrose, tall evening primrose

Climate known 60 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 elata is a species of Oenothera belonging to the family Onagraceae, known by the common name Hooker's evening primrose or tall evening primrose. Subspecies include hookeri, hirsutissima, longisima, jamesii, villosa and elata. It is native to much of western and central North America. The plants are quite tall, especially the hookeri subspecies, native to California, which can reach about 1.8 meters height. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Oenothera elata”, 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
Kunth
Native to
Colorado, Idaho, Oregon +18
Wild records
1673 in range· 398 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jul, mean day; nights 16 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
377mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Feb 66 mm (CHELSA)
Light
19–52DLI
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: a winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 377 mm a year, wettest February at 66 mm, driest June at 7 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 52 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -3.6 °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 Oenothera biennis var. hirsutissima A.Gray; Oenothera hookeri var. grisea Bartlett.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (265 mm of 377 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 8.7 °C against a yearly mean of 14.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

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 377 mm a year, wettest February at 66 mm, driest June at 7 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

377 mm a year at the habitat, 265 mm of it November to March. Wettest month February at 66 mm, driest June at 7 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 284 mm to 807 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: 19 to 52 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 52 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 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 54).

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 -3.6 °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 -3.6 °C, the absolute minimum -8.3 °C, about 34 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 1.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells -9.4 °C to 8.5 °C), warmest day 27.9 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.6 °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: 49 to 56% 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 13 °C in Dec to 28 °C in Jul; mean night from 2 °C in Jan to 16 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 377 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 939 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -8.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost35.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-8.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 19–52RH 49–56 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 939 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 °C13 / 1–1814 / 3–1816 / 6–2019 / 11–2322 / 16–2725 / 20–3228 / 21–3328 / 21–3325 / 19–3121 / 14–2616 / 6–2113 / 1–18
Night °C2 / -9–93 / -8–94 / -5–107 / -2–1110 / 3–1413 / 8–1616 / 11–1916 / 10–1914 / 7–1810 / 2–155 / -4–112 / -9–9
Rain mm61 / 19–13566 / 19–13052 / 23–10129 / 16–5415 / 5–557 / 2–489 / 1–9711 / 1–10313 / 5–6028 / 16–5835 / 19–8751 / 21–127
DLI20 / 15–2426 / 21–3035 / 30–3944 / 40–4749 / 45–5252 / 49–5450 / 45–5246 / 41–4839 / 36–4130 / 26–3323 / 17–2519 / 13–21
RH %54 / 49–6256 / 49–6255 / 46–6253 / 42–6151 / 40–6349 / 37–6449 / 41–6551 / 42–6550 / 43–6451 / 45–6253 / 46–6054 / 48–61

Each figure is the median across the 939 grid cells holding the 1629 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 1108:1215 (34.575, -119.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -8.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.9 °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 939 distinct grid cells holding the 1629 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1108:1215 (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 34.50_-119.375, lapse-corrected +412 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1151 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.
NativeColorado, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama· introduced: Northwest European Russia
Kew's description“biennial or perennial” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker33.148, -117.244 · in the densest population, 699 records (42% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1673 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 398 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 15 km away. 20 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 44 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 of the 1673 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Oenothera elataOenothera elataOenothera elataOenothera elataOenothera elataOenothera elataOenothera elataOenothera elata

Photographs: (c) Ken-ichi Ueda, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Ike Ikemori, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Andrew Tree, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) nmoorhatch, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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 elata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Complete nucleotide sequence of the Oenothera elata plastid chromosome, representing plastome I of the five distinguishable Euoenothera plastomes
H. Hupfer, Marcin Świątek, Severin Hornung, R. G. Herrmann (2000) · Molecular and General Genetics MGG
Response of Selected Wildflower Species to Saline Water Irrigation
Genhua Niu, Denise S. Rodriguez, Cynthia B. McKenney (2012) · HortScience
FIELD PRODUCTION OF TEXAS NATIVE EVENING PRIMROSE (OENOTHERA SPP.) AS A SOURCE OF GAMMA LINOLENIC ACID
C.L. Murphy, C.B. McKenney, D. L. Auld, N. W. Hopper (2004) · Acta Horticulturae
Flowers that self‐shade reduce heat stress and pollen limitation
Richard Karban, Danielle Rutkowski, Naomi A. Murray (2022) · American Journal of Botany
Complete nucleotide sequence of the Oenothera elata plastid chromosome, representing plastome I of the five distinguishable Euoenothera plastomes
H. Hupfer, Michał Świątek, Severin Hornung, R. G. Herrmann (2008) · Molecular Genetics and Genomics
Investigation of interspecific genome-plastome incompatibility in Oenothera and Passiflora
Jaroslav Mráček (2006) · Electronic Theses of LMU Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
A Cytogenetic Study of Certain Races of Oenothera elata
Erich Steiner (1955) · Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club
Tolerance of Hooker's Evening Primrose (Oenothera elata) Transplants to Postemergence Herbicides
Amber Bates, Gerald M. Henry, Cynthia B. McKenney (2013) · Weed Technology
Tolerance of Hooker’s Evening Primrose Transplants to Preemergence Herbicides
Amber Bates, Gerald M. Henry, Cynthia B. McKenney (2013) · HortTechnology

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 84 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.