Field Book of Western Wild Flowers

by Margaret Armstrong; J. J. Thornber

A common kind, very variable in its manner of growth, being tall and erect in moist, shady places and spreading flat on the ground in dry, sunny spots. The leaves are dull green, more or less downy and more or less toothed, and the flowers are three-quarters of an inch across, clear yellow, usually with a speck, or blotch, of reddish-brown at the base of each petal; the stamens and pistil also yellow; the pods reddish and very much twisted. Gravelly washes are often thickly sprinkled with these gay and charming flowers.

Sphaerostígma Veitchiànum (Oenothera)
Yellow
Spring
California

Much like the last, but the flowers are only a little over a quarter of an inch across. The pods are dark red and shiny, with a few hairs.

Beach Primrose
Sphaerostígma viridéscens (Oenothera cheiranthifolia var. suffruticosa)
Yellow
All seasons
California

A beautiful seashore plant, forming large, low clumps of reclining stems and pale gray, downy foliage, the twigs and younger leaves silvery-white. The flowers are about an inch and a quarter across, clear yellow, often with two, dark red dots at the base of each petal; the stamens and pistil also yellow of the same shade; the pods pinkish, downy, and much twisted. The flat masses of pale foliage, strewn with golden disks, are exceedingly effective, growing in drifting sand hills along the coast, from San Francisco south.

S. Veitchianum.
Beach Primrose—Sphaerostigma viridescens.
Evening Primrose—S. bistorta.

Sphaerostígma tortuòsa. (Oenothera)
White
Spring
Nevada

A queer little, stunted-looking, desert plant, with almost no stem, but with several branches, spreading flat on the ground, stiff, smooth and purplish, with crowded clusters of flowers, leaves, and pods, mostly at the ends, the whole forming flat clumps, from six to ten inches across. The leaves are smooth, slightly thickish, pale bluish-green and toothless; the buds are erect, and the flowers are over a quarter of an inch across, white, with yellow anthers and a green stigma. The pods are very much twisted and form odd little snarly bunches.