Neoholmgrenia andina (Upland Evening Primrose) - photos and description
Origin: Native.
General: Small annual plants with a branching growth habit. Stems glabrous.
Flowers: Flowers in congested, leafy clusters, bright yellow, measured at 4 mm diameter. The styles are elongated, with the stigma head-like, and not divided (some species in the Oenethera family native to SK have a divided style).
Leaves: Leaves whorled or alternate, usually crowded together on the top half of the plant, have short stalks, linear-lanceolate in shape. Leaf highlighted in photo above was 14 mm long and 2 mm wide. Top of leaves sparingly hairy with short hairs.
Height: Budd's Flora lists the height to 15 cm, we measured plants to 7 cm tall.
Habitat: Dry prairie in the southwest corner of the province. We found them growing on the edges of shallow, dried stream beds (arroyos), favoring the west edges of the stream beds.
Abundance: Extremely rare, this plant is listed as S1 (as of 2021) by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre.
Synonym: Listed in some of the field guides we use as Camissonia andina, and as Oenothera andina.
When and where photographed: Photos taken June 21st and June 24th, edges of arroyos in grassland, 500 km southwest of our home in Regina, SK.