The Main Plant entry for Oenotheras (Oenothera)

"Oenothera is a genus of about 125 species of herbaceous flowering plants, native to North and South America. It is the type genus of the family Onagraceae. Common names include evening primrose, suncups and sundrops. They are not closely related to the true primroses (Primula).

The flowers of many species open within less than a minute in the evening, hence the name "evening primrose", and are yellow in most species but white, purple, pink or red in a few. Most native desert species are white. The fragrant tufted evening primrose Oenothera caespitosa, a Southwestern species, blooms white, with flowers turning pink or light magenta as they age.

One of the most distinctive features of the flower is the stigma with four branches, forming an X shape.

Oenothera species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Schinia felicitata and Schinia florida, both of which feed exclusively on the genus, the former exclusively on O. deltoides."

Taken from wikipedia's page at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O...

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