''Oenothera lindheimeri'', commonly known as Lindheimer's beeblossom, white gaura, pink gaura, Lindheimer's clockweed, and Indian feather, is a species of ''

Oenothera ''Oenothera'' is a genus of about 145 species of herbaceous flowering plants native to the Americas. It is the type genus of the family Onagraceae. Common names include evening primrose, suncups, and sundrops. They are not closely related to ...

''. The

perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

is native to southern

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

.USDA Plants Profile
''Gaura lindheimeri''
/ref> The specific epithet is after Ferdinand Jacob Lindheimer, a German-born botanist who collected extensively in

for

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

professor Asa Gray.

Description

''Oenothera lindheimeri'' is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wid ...

herbaceous plant Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent wood, woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennial plant, perennials, and nearly all Annual plant, annuals and Biennial plant, biennials. Definition ...

growing to tall, with densely clustered branched stems growing from an underground rhizome. The leaves are finely hairy, lanceolate, long and broad, with a coarsely toothed margin. The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s are produced on a

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

; they are pink or white, in diameter, with four petals long and long hairlike stamens, and are produced from the beginning of spring until the first frost.Munz, P. A. (1938). Studies in Onagraceae XI. A Revision of the Genus Gaura. ''Bull. Torrey Bot. Club'' 65: 105-122, 211-228.Huxley, A., ed. (1992). ''New RHS Dictionary of Gardening''. Macmillan .

Cultivation

''Oenothera lindheimeri'' is commonly grown as an

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that ...

. It is used in either garden beds or pots for accent colour and a delicate texture. It grows best in full sun and can survive lengthy periods of

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

. Several

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture ...

s have been selected for varying flower color, from nearly pure white in 'Whirling Butterflies' to darker pink in 'Cherry Brandy' and 'Siskiyou Pink'. In some, the petals are white at dawn then turning pink before falling off at dusk. Although a perennial rated USDA Zone 5(6)-9 for hardiness it may not overwinter reliably, and is often treated as an annual outside its native areas. In colder climates a heavy winter mulch is necessary. This plant has gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nor ...

's Award of Garden Merit.

Etymology

''Gaura'': Derived from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

''(gaûros)'' meaning "superb". Named in reference to the stature and floral display of some species in this genus.Gledhill, David (2008). "The Names of Plants". Cambridge University Press. (hardback), (paperback). pp 175, 238 ''Lindheimeri'': Named for

Ferdinand Lindheimer Ferdinand Jacob Lindheimer (May 21, 1801 – December 2, 1879) was a German Texan botanist who spent his working life on the American frontier. In 1936, Recorded Texas Historic Landmark number 1590 was placed on Lindheimer's grave. Biography Ea ...

(1801–79), who discovered the plant '' Lindheimera texana''.

References

External links

* *
Floridata: Gaura lindheimeriMissouri Botanical Garden: Gaura lindheimeri
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q27651974, from2=Q1114174 lindheimeri Flora of Louisiana Flora of Texas Taxa named by Asa Gray Garden plants of North America Drought-tolerant plants