This is another plant we've been mowing around, but unlike the the other mystery, which stayed upright, this one has gone flop for the most part. Possibly from our heavy rains.

There's an insect on it, but I will ask about that on the correct forum. I only see them on this plant. These flowers are interesting, but are they white, or would you call them red?


Here's a close-up of the flowers, if this helps.




Thank you.

Don't know about the plant, but I think the insect is a stilt bug, genus Jalysus.

It's a type of gaura, probably either Longflower Beeblossom (Oenothera filiformis) or Velvety Gaura (Oenothera curtiflora) .

I just noticed... these are no longer the genus Gaura? Is this a recent change?

A friend thinks these are the Velvety Gaura, but going back there today, a bloom has opened at some point, but it was all white. Could be fading since I wasn't back there yesterday. The flower looks smaller than the Biennial beeblossom I already have.

This shows a photo of Velvety Gaura with pale pinkish-white blooms: http://swbiodiversity.org/sein...

Chillybean said:I just noticed... these are no longer the genus Gaura? Is this a recent change?

There was a major taxonomic reworking of the Onagraceae family about ten years ago. Several genera, including Gaura, were lumped into the genus Oenothera.

Some sites are holding on to the old names, but both the Catalog of Life (which serves as our primary reference for nomenclature) and ITIS (probably the most rigorous taxonomic source available online, but limited to North America) have adopted the new names.

I am currently trying to find close-up images of the leaves that matches mine. You can see these ridges in the third photo above. I really would like to narrow this down, if at all possible. With this name change, it's making searching a little more complicated because large databases of native plants are still using the Gaura genus.

This shows how important good, clear images of leaves are. I went to Maximilian sunflowers here to add the plant to my list and AAAAH! How many more photos of blossoms of that plant do we need?!

I am going through older posts of mine to see if any can be resolved. I took a couple more pictures of this Bee Blossom. Interestingly, the flowers are becoming darker.



I am surprised how woody it gets at the base for being an annual.

Could it be: Biennial Beeblossom (Oenothera gaura)
This site has it listed under the synonym Gaura biennis: http://www.wildflower.org/plan...

I was leaning toward that, but wanted to be sure. Thank you. This individual sprouted up early, but lately I've noticed a heap of gaura.