Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Herbaceous annuals, to 30 cm tall, stems stout, erect, glabrous and peeling (except for the infloresences), sometimes reddish, plants arising from a taproot.

Leaves: Alternate, lanceolate to oblanceolate, 25-130 mm long, with entire to minutely dentate margins, proximal blades generally oblanceolate or absent.

Flowers: White or rarely red with 4 open and spreading petals, 4-8 mm long, opening at dusk, sepals 4, 4-8 mm long, reflexed singly or in pairs, longer stamens opposite sepals, anthers attached at middle, pollen grains 3-angled, stigmas hemispheric, hypanthium 4-8 mm long, inflorescences spike-like and nodding with inconspicuous bracts, flowers often absent at the proximal nodes.

Fruits: Capsules cylindric and tapered to the tip, to 35 mm long and 1-3.5 mm wide, curved outward to strongly wavy and twisted, persistent, tardily dehiscent. Seeds 1-2 mm long, obovoid to oblanceoloid, minutely pitted in rows, pale to dark brown and minutely pi

Ecology: Found on sandy soils on slopes, in washes and desert scrub communities, from 250-4,000 ft (76-1219 m); flowering February-May.

Distribution: Arizona, California, Utah; Mexico.

Notes: Keys for the subspecies are the inconspicuous bracts of the infloresences, the outward curving fruits 2-3.8 mm wide, and the stout plants with glabrous stems and leaves, arising from a well-developed basal rosette. This species is not treated in older versions of Kearney and Peebles.

Ethnobotany: Unknown.

Synonyms: Camissonia boothii ssp. condensata, Oenothera boothii ssp. condensata

Editor: LCrumbacher2012