Camissonia micrantha (Sprengel) Raven   =Oenothera hirta   =Oenothera micrantha                                Onagraceae (Evening Primrose Family)                                        Native                                        Small Primrose                                        Small-Flowered Evening Primrose

                               February Photo

Plant Characteristics: Annual, mostly with sprawling branches up to 6 dm. long, +/- densely villous all over; lvs. very narrowly elliptic in the basal rosette, cauline tending to be broader near the base, 1-12 cm. long, denticulate; lower petioles to 2 cm. long, upper reduced; infl. more densely villous than rest of the plant, usually grayish;  fl. tube 1.2-2 mm. long; sepals 1-1.5 mm. long; petals 4, yellow, 1.5-4 mm., occasionally red to purple dotted near the base;  stamens unequal, the anthers surrounding the stigma at anthesis; caps. subterete in living material, (drying +/- quadrangular), straight or somewhat curved.

Habitat:  Coastal dunes or beaches inland to Elsinore, Upland, etc.; Channel Ids.  March-May.

Name:  Named in honor of Adelbert Ludwig von Chamisso (1781-1838), who named the Calif. Poppy.  He was the botanist on the ship Rurik that visited Calif. in 1816.  (Dale 140).  Greek, micros, small.  (Jaeger 155).  Micrantha small flowered.  Hirtus, hairy.  (Bailey 16).  The old genus name Oenothera is from the Greek, oinus, meaning wine and thera, meaning to imbibe, because an allied European plant was thought to induce a taste for wine.  (Dale 143).  The family name is misleading, for these plants are not related to the Primroses (Primulaceae).  The Primrose name was given to them in the early 1600's by John Parkinson, an English herbalist who was the first to describe these New World flowers.  Their scent reminded him of the Wild Primroses in English meadows.  The "Evening" of the name refers to the habit of some species of opening at sundown and closing by morning.  (Dale 139).

General:  Uncommon in the study area, having been found only in the Big Canyon area and near the bluff top on the northerly side of the 23rd St. study area. In April 2001 the species was found at Shellmaker Id.; this population has narrow petals, only 1.3 mm. wide, oblong in shape and truncate. (my comments).  Photographed in Big Canyon and at Shellmaker Id.    Oenothera, the old genus name, is a large genus of the New World, mostly of temperate regions.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 613).  There are 62 species of Camissonia in western North America and 1 in South America.  (Hickman, Ed. 778).  Self-pollinated.  Previously more inclusively defined.  (Hickman, Ed. 784).

Text Ref:  Hickman, Ed. 783; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 598.

Photo Ref:  April 2 86 # 3,4,5; Feb-Mar 88 # 6,7; Mar-April 01 #20.

Identity: by John Johnson.

First Found:  April 1986.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 87.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 11/20/04.  

                          April Photo                                                             April Photo