Oenothera curtiflora

Oenothera curtiflora
Conservation status
Apparently Secure  (NatureServe) [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Myrtales
Family:	Onagraceae
Genus:	Oenothera
Species:	O. curtiflora
Binomial name
Oenothera curtiflora W.L.Wagner & Hoch
Synonyms [2]
List Gaura australis Gaura hirsuta Gaura micrantha Gaura mollis Gaura parviflora Schizocarya micrantha

Oenothera curtiflora (syn. Gaura parviflora), known as velvetweed, velvety gaura, downy gaura, or smallflower gaura, is a species of flowering plant native to the central United States and northern Mexico, from Nebraska and Wyoming south to Durango and Nuevo Leon. ^[3]

Taxonomy

Oenothera curtiflora was long known as Gaura parviflora, this name being published in 1830 and for a long time considered the correct name for the species. However, an overlooked but validly published name G. mollis had been published earlier by Edwin James in 1823. A proposal was made to conserve the name G. parviflora over G. mollis, ^[4] and this was accepted by the International Botanical Congress Committee for Spermatophyta. ^[5] In 2007 it was moved to the genus Oenothera by Warren Lambert Wagner and Peter Coonan Hoch as Oenothera curtiflora. ^[2] The genus Gaura created by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 is a synonym of Oenothera according to Plants of the World Online (POWO). ^[6]

Oenothera curtiflora has 9 synonyms, six of them species, according to POWO. ^[2]

Table of Synonyms

Name	Year	Rank	Notes
Gaura australisGriseb.	1879	species	= het.
Gaura hirsutaScheele	1848	species	= het.
Gaura micrantha(Spach) D.Dietr.	1840	species	= het.
Gaura mollisE.James	1823	species	= het., nom. utique rej.
Gaura parvifloraDouglas ex Lehm.	1830	species	≡ hom.
Gaura parviflora var. typicaMunz	1938	variety	≡ hom.
Gaura parviflora f. glabraMunz	1938	form	= het.
Gaura parviflora var. lachnocarpaWeath.	1925	variety	= het.
Schizocarya micranthaSpach	1835	species	= het.
Notes: ≡ homotypic synonym  ; = heterotypic synonym

Description

It is an annual plant growing to 0.2–2 m (rarely 3 m) tall, unbranched, or if branched, only below the flower spikes. The leaves are 2–20 cm (0.79–7.87 in) long, lance-shaped, and are covered with soft hair. The flower spikes are 20–30 cm (7.9–11.8 in) long, covered with green flower buds, which open at night or before dawn with small flowers 5 mm (0.20 in) diameter with four pink petals. ^{[7] [8] [9]}

Uses

Among the Zuni people, fresh or dried root would be chewed by medicine man before sucking snakebite and poultice applied to wound. ^[10]

Introduction

It is naturalized and often invasive in other parts of the United States, and in Australia, China, Japan, and South America. ^{[1] [11] [12]}

References

1. NatureServe (1 August 2025). "Gaura mollis". NatureServe Explorer. Arlington, Virginia. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
2. "Oenothera curtiflora W.L.Wagner & Hoch". Plants of the World Online . Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved 4 September 2025.
3. "Oenothera curtiflora". Germplasm Resources Information Network . Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture . Retrieved 21 January 2018.
4. Wagner, W. L., & Hoch, P. (2000). Proposal to Reject the Name Gaura mollis (Onagraceae). Taxon 49 (1): 101-102.
5. Brummitt, R. K. (2001). Report of the Committee for Spermatophyta: 52. Taxon 50 (4): 1179-1182.
6. "Gaura L." Plants of the World Online . Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved 4 September 2025.
7. Jepson Flora: Gaura parviflora
8. Southwest Environmental Information Network: Gaura mollis ^{[ dead link ]}
9. Wildflowers of Tucson: Gaura mollis Archived 2006-11-28 at the Wayback Machine
10. Camazine, Scott and Robert A. Bye 1980 A Study Of The Medical Ethnobotany Of The Zuni Indians of New Mexico. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 2:365-388 (p. 377)
11. Flora of China: Gaura parviflora
12. PlantNet (Australia): Gaura parviflora