Index / Search / Oenothera biennis
§1 Plant — species · Onagraceae
Oenothera biennis L.
vernacular common evening primrose
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Forb/herb
- Duration
- Biennial
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Onagraceae Juss.
- Genus
- Oenothera
§2a
Native status, by region
- CAN Canada Native
- L48 Lower 48 States Native
§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- Medium
- Shade
- High
- Moisture use
- Medium
- Fire
- Low
- Salinity
- None
- Anaerobic
- None
- CaCO₃
- Medium
- Hedging
- None
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- -28 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 120 min.
- Precipitation
- 20–55 in/yr
- pH range
- 5–7
- Root depth
- 10 in min.
- Fertility need
- Medium
- Soil texture
- coarse, medium, fine
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth form
- Single Crown
- Growth rate
- Rapid
- Lifespan
- Short
- Mature height
- 5 ft
- Foliage texture
- Coarse
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Dense
- Porosity (winter)
- Porous
- Flower colour
- Yellow
- Fruit colour
- Brown
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- None
- Toxicity
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Late Spring
- Seed abundance
- High
- Seed begins
- Summer
- Seed ends
- Fall
- Spread rate
- Moderate
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 1,376,000
- Propagation
- seed
§3e
Use & availability
- Commercial availability
- Contracting Only
- Nursery stock
- No
- Palatable, human
- No
- Lumber
- No
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Montana distribution
Recorded in 17 of 56 Montana counties.
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/OEBI ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/3188924 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-25
fetched 2026-05-25T16:28:53Z