Can anyone help us with this? We have been calling this flower a Moon Flower, but searching for such on the internet I only see reference to a morning glory-like vine. The plant pictured in the center is not a vine it has the growth habit of a dandelion but with skinnier leaves. The yellow flower unfurls in about 5-10 seconds after the sun goes down. You have to sit there a while to catch it in the act but it is quite interesting. It usually re-seeds itself year to year in the Chicago area but this year we have nothing coming. We got this plant from a friend who also has none coming this year. Many Thanks Bill
Normally, I'd say Evening Primrose, but the leaves are not at all right. Is it possible to get a closeup of the flowers so we can see the structure more easily?
Yes, there are stemless evening primroses, just like the true primroses. Its Oenothera triloba. It has the unfortunate luck of looking very much like a dandelion until it blooms.
Here are a couple of enlargements of the two flowers from the original post. Sorry I don't have any close-up pics of the blooms only so the quality is not the best. I appreciate the efforts. Thanks, Bill
Yup. Evening primrose; the genus, as Ron B mentioned above, is Oenothera. Maybe he can narrow it down.
Many species, without consensus about how each is defined. Google Images may happen to have same one shown, if you flip through a few pages of results maybe you will luck out (search using "oenothera"). Otherwise, if you think it may be native or, if introduced common enough to be treated as a wild plant by such references try books and sites covering plants of your region.
YES! I didn't realize there were Evening Primroses with this growth habit. When I Googled "Oenothera triloba" I found a perfect match. Now to find a seed source. Thank you all so very much! Bill
