Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Annual to biennial, stems ascending, hirsute or villous, 40-90 cm tall.

Leaves: Basal leaves oblanceolate, sinuate-dentate, 4-10 cm long, villous, especially on the margins and veins, petioles short and winged; cauline leaves linear to linear-oblong, entire to sinuate-dentate, glabrous to hirsute, 1-4 cm long, sessile or nearly so.

Flowers: Floral bracts ovate, ciliolate, 1-2 mm long; hypanthium 5-7 mm long, glabrous to glandular-pubescent externally, pubescent within; sepals linear, 4-12 mm long, glabrous to glandular-pubescent; petals white to reddish, oblanceolate, 5-10 mm long.

Fruits: Sessile or short-stipitate, ovoid-pyramidal, sharply 4-angled, 5-8 mm long, glabrous, transversely wrinkled.

Ecology: Found on disturbed ground and in canyons, to along streams from 2,500-9,000 ft (762-2743 m); flowers May-October.

Notes: This description is derived from prior descriptions of subsp. gracilis, which is the predominant subspecies in the area. Distinguished from the similar G. coccinea by virtue of the annual habit which tends to not be as developed at branching from the base, nor being as leafy.

Ethnobotany: Taken as an infusion for stomachache.

Etymology: Gaura is from the Greek -gauros- superb or proud, presumably because of the erect, proud petals, while hexandra means having six stamens.

Synonyms: None, but for subsp. gracilis: Gaura gracilis, Gaura gracilis var. typica

Editor: SBuckley, 2010