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Oenothera flava; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-05-23

Oenothera flava (A.Nelson) Garrett

Low yellow evening-primrose; Yellow evening primrose; Long-tubed evening-primrose; Long-tube evening primrose

Onagraceae · Alberta, Manitoba +20

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Oenothera flava, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedOenothera flava, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedOenothera flava, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedOenothera flava, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedOenothera flava, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedOenothera flava, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 68 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-17.0°C
Record low -29.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
25°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
559mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
18–51DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Oenothera flava, the yellow evening primrose (a name it shares with Oenothera serrulata), is a species of flowering plant in the family Onagraceae. It is native to western Canada (except British Columbia), the western and central United States, and Mexico (except southeastern Mexico), and it has been introduced to the former Czechoslovakia. An almost stemless perennial reaching 20 cm (8 in), it is typically found in damp situations such as prairie swales, open woodlands, and alongside streams.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Oenothera flava", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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 ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Oenothera", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (390 mm of 527 mm) takes 8 months, December to March and July to October. Mean temperature moves 23.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to April and June to September.

Rain

527 mm in the median year at the habitat, 390 mm of it December to March and July to October. Wettest month August at 72 mm, driest month June at 31 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 358 mm to 892 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 559 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 527 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 51 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 54).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -17.0 °C, the absolute minimum -29.8 °C, 8,091 frost nights in 44 years, 183.9 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -9.6 °C in December (across the grid cells of the range -16.2 °C to -0.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.1 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -17.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 45 to 54% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -59 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Oenothera flava through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest month December, mean nightly low -9.6 °C; 527 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-40°-20°0°20°40°frost31.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-29.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 18–51RH 45–54%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 428 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C1 / -5–113 / -3–137 / 0–1612 / 5–2018 / 11–2423 / 18–2825 / 21–3024 / 20–2920 / 16–2614 / 8–207 / 0–161 / -5–11
Night °C-9 / -16–-1-8 / -14–-1-5 / -11–1-1 / -8–44 / -3–99 / 3–1411 / 7–1611 / 7–168 / 2–132 / -4–7-5 / -12–2-10 / -16–-1
Rain mm38 / 14–7638 / 13–7443 / 19–8035 / 17–7337 / 14–7431 / 10–7362 / 19–11972 / 21–13253 / 25–8643 / 27–7834 / 15–7441 / 15–77
DLI20 / 14–2427 / 21–3036 / 30–3945 / 39–4749 / 44–5251 / 47–5447 / 43–5142 / 39–4537 / 34–3929 / 24–3222 / 15–2518 / 12–21
RH %54 / 49–6254 / 50–6152 / 47–5850 / 43–5547 / 40–5345 / 36–5247 / 41–5450 / 43–5648 / 45–5450 / 46–5452 / 47–5953 / 49–62
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 428 grid cells holding the 539 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1061:1499 (36.925, -105.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -29.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -17.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 428 distinct grid cells holding 539 of the 539 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1061:1499 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 37.00_-105.000, lapse-corrected -59 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2498 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, North Dakota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest · introduced: Czechoslovakia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker37.57, -112.84 · in the densest population, 683 records (80% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 856 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 539 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 440 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 339 km away. 14 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 317 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 11264616 (Oenothera flava (A.Nelson) Munz): Kew's file holds it as Oenothera flava (A.Nelson) Garrett (accepted); 0 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 856 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Oenothera flava, photograph 1did not loadOenothera flava, photograph 2did not loadOenothera flava, photograph 3did not loadOenothera flava, photograph 4did not loadOenothera flava, photograph 5did not loadOenothera flava, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Berberis fendleri Berberis fendleri Colorado barberry Photo: CC BY, Curtis DrakeHeliomeris multiflora Heliomeris multiflora Showy goldeneye Photo: CC BY, Daughter DadBrickellia grandiflora Brickellia grandiflora Large-flowered brickellia Photo: CC BY, Elliott GordonErigeron flagellaris Erigeron flagellaris Running fleabane Photo: CC0, author not statedThermopsis montana Thermopsis montana Mountain golden-banner Photo: CC BY-SA, Matt LavinHymenoxys subintegra Hymenoxys subintegra Arizona rubberweed Photo: CC BY, Wendy McCrady

Other Oenothera 59 in the reference

Oenothera acaulis Oenothera acaulis Onagraceae Photo: CC BY, Gabriela CartesOenothera affinis Oenothera affinis Longflower evening primrose Photo: CC BY, Andrea GantzerOenothera albicaulis Oenothera albicaulis Onagraceae Photo: CC0, author not statedOenothera argillicola Oenothera argillicola Shale barren evening primrose Photo: CC BY, Tom FieldOenothera avita Oenothera avita California evening primrose Photo: CC BY, James FowlerOenothera biennis Oenothera biennis Common evening-primrose Photo: CC BY, Andrew ConboyOenothera calcicola Oenothera calcicola Texas beeblossom Photo: CC BY, Michelle W. （鍾偉瑋）Oenothera capillifolia Oenothera capillifolia Berlandier's suncups Photo: CC BY, ashleyrsteelOenothera cespitosa Oenothera cespitosa Tufted evening-primrose Photo: CC0, author not statedOenothera cinerea Oenothera cinerea Woolly beeblossom Photo: CC BY, Sam KieschnickOenothera clelandii Oenothera clelandii Cleland's evening-primrose Photo: CC0, author not statedOenothera coloradensis Oenothera coloradensis New Mexico beeblossom Photo: CC BY, Austin Saunders all 60 ›

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Onagraceae
Described by
(A.Nelson) Garrett
Native to
Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan +19
Wild records
856 in range · 440 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 0 records of GBIF's key 11264616, Oenothera flava (A.Nelson) Munz (Kew's file holds it as Oenothera flava (A.Nelson) Garrett (accepted)): GBIF occurrence search API; 8 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (7 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 37.00_-105.000, lapse-corrected -59 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 88 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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