Plant Wiki

The open plant encyclopedia

Know any plant.
Grow it well.

Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.

  • 13,000+plants with full pages
  • 365,000+plant species worldwide
  • 220+countries covered

Common in

See all

The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.

What do you want to do?

Popular plants

Browse all plants

See them in 3D

All plants in 3D

Browse plants

Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.

Plant Wiki › Browse plants

Wolf's evening primrose

Oenothera wolfii

Wolf's evening primrose
Photo: Daderot, CC0

Wolf's evening primrose is a rare, hairy biennial or short-lived perennial native to coastal southern Oregon and northern California, forming a leaf rosette before sending up a tall flowering stem. Its main concern for growers is hybridizing with the garden escapee Oenothera glazioviana, so keep it isolated from other evening primroses.

Family
Onagraceae (Evening-primrose family)
Grows as
Perennial
Light
Full sun
Water
Water moderately while establishing, then allow the soil to dry between waterings.
Soil
Sandy or gritty, well-drained soil.
Temperature
10–24 °C; tolerates cool coastal conditions and light frost.
How easy
Moderate
Native range
SW. Oregon to NW. California
Climate
temperate

About

Oenothera wolfii is a rare species of flowering plant in the evening primrose family known by the common name Wolf's evening primrose. It is native to the coastline of southern Oregon and northern California, where it grows in coastal prairie, dunes, and coastal forest and woodland habitat. As of 1997 it was known from only about 16 occurrences. The biggest threat to the plant is its easy hybridization with its relative and probable descendant, Oenothera glazioviana. As this rare wild plant crosses with the introduced garden escapee, introgression occurs, causing what is known as genetic pollution; fewer pure individuals of O. wolfii will be seen as they are outnumbered by hybrids.

Oenothera wolfii is a hairy biennial herb producing a dense rosette of leaves and an erect stem up to a meter tall. The wavy or toothed leaves are up to 18 centimeters long.

Other Oenothera plants

Common evening primrose · Tufted Evening Primrose · Antioch Dunes evening primrose · Birdcage 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

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Oenothera wolfii 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.

Credits & terms

Identify a plant

Point at a leaf or flower and snap. One plant in frame works best.

Your photo
Starting camera…