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Largeflower Evening Primrose

Oenothera grandiflora

Evening Primrose
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Bartram’s hand colored engraving of Oenothera grandiflora. Courtesy of the Sterling Morton Library, The Morton Arboretum.
Bartram’s hand colored engraving of Oenothera grandiflora. Courtesy of the Sterling Morton Library, The Morton Arboretum.

Transcript

Largeflower Evening Primrose

 

Naturalist William Bartram encountered this plant in 1775 along the rich lowlands of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. He named it Evening Primrose.

 

Seeds collected by Bartram were sold in Europe and for a time it was popular in European gardens.

 

Notice in his watercolor that the edge of the leaf blade has teeth.  As the name suggests, you might have to stay up late or rise early to view its bloom!


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