Stem: Erect, wand-like, or branched,
to 1 to 5 ft. tall, rarely higher, leafy. Leaves: Alternate,
lance-shaped, mostly seated on stem, entire, or obscurely
toothed.
Preferred Habitat - Roadsides, dry fields, thickets,
fence-corners.
Flowering Season - June-October.
Distribution - Labrador to the Gulf of Mexico, west to the Rocky
Mountains.
Like a ballroom beauty, the evening primrose has a jaded,
bedraggled appearance by day when we meet it by the dusty
roadside, its erect buds, fading flowers from last night's
revelry, wilted ones of previous dissipations, and hairy oblong
capsules, all crowded together among the willow-like leaves at
the top of the rank growing plant. But at sunset a bud begins to
expand its delicate petals slowly, timidly - not suddenly and
with a pop, as the evening primrose of the garden does.
Now, its fragrance, that has been only faintly perceptible during
the day, becomes increasingly powerful. Why these blandishments
at such an hour? Because at dusk, when sphinx moths, large and
small, begin to fly (see Jamestown weed), the primrose's special
benefactors are abroad.
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