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Birdcage evening primrose

Oenothera deltoides

Also called Devil's Lantern, Basket Evening Primrose, Desert Lantern, Lion In A Cage, Antioch Dunes Evening Primrose, Large Desert Evening Primrose, Birdcage Eveningprimrose

Birdcage evening primrose
Photo: Bugguyak (talk), Public domain

Birdcage evening primrose is a desert perennial with grayish basal leaves and large white flowers that turn pinkish with age. Its key to growing is sharp drainage and full sun, since it comes from sandy desert and dune habitats.

Family
Onagraceae (Evening-primrose family)
Grows as
Perennial
Light
Full sun
Water
Water deeply but infrequently, and let the soil dry out fully between waterings.
Soil
Very fast-draining sandy or gritty mix.
Temperature
18–35 °C; protect below about 0 °C.
How easy
Easy
Native range
W. U.S.A. to NW. Mexico
Climate
desert or dry shrubland

About

Oenothera deltoides is a species of evening primrose known by several common names, including birdcage evening primrose, basket evening primrose, lion in a cage, and devil's lantern. It is native to the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it grows in sandy habitats from desert to beach.

The plant is grayish with basal, deltoid leaves. The large white flowers turn pinkish as they mature. When the plants die, the stems curl upward and form the "birdcage" for which the common name is derived.

Other Oenothera plants

Common evening primrose · Tufted Evening Primrose · Antioch Dunes evening primrose · Beach evening primrose · Hooker's evening primrose · Narrowleaf evening primrose · Redsepal evening primrose · Cutleaf evening primrose · Lindheimer's Beeblossom · Threadleaf evening primrose · Longstem evening primrose · Bigfruit evening primrose

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Oenothera deltoides by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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