''Oenothera sinuosa'' is a species of flowering plant in the evening primrose family known by the common names wavyleaf beeblossom and Red River gaura. The species was previously treated as ''Gaura sinuata'', but in 2007 the species, along with the genus ''Gaura'' was reclassified in the genus ''

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 ...

''. This species then becomes ''O. sinuosa'' in ''Oenothera''

Section Section, Sectioning or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sign ...

''Gaura''. It is native to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and its native range extends as far north into the United States as

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

. It can be found across the southern half of the United States where it is an

introduced species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there ...

and occasionally weedy. This is a tough mat-forming perennial herb with branching, sprawling stems 20 to 60 centimeters long and covered in hairs. The leaves are 1 to 10 centimeters long and are generally toothed along the edges. The plant produces spike

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

s of small flowers with white to pinkish spoon-shaped petals which darken as they age, often to a deep red. The fruit is a winged, woody capsule with a tapered end, up to 1.5 centimeters in length. The species is

tetraploid Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than one pair of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei (eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes, where each set contains ...

, probably of hybrid origin. Its potential for invasive spread through seed is limited by its

self-incompatibility Self-incompatibility (SI) is a general name for several genetic mechanisms that prevent self-fertilization in sexually reproducing organisms, and thus encourage outcrossing and allogamy. It is contrasted with separation of sexes among individuals ...

References

External links

Jepson Manual TreatmentPhoto gallery
sinuosa Flora of Mexico Flora of the United States {{Myrtales-stub