This native flower came to us courtesy of a sibling who had purchased a new home, whose previous owner was a avid gardener. When we stopped by to see the home, and noted the Evening Primrose in full flower, I asked to collect a specimen for our garden, and it has thrived the twenty plus years since.

Evening Primrose is a large family of flowering plants. The species number over one hundred in the United States alone. What makes them interesting and unique is that they are night blooming, with the flowers opening in the evening, and closing in the late morning. That, of course, also means that they have uncommon pollinators including an assortment of moths, and even bats for some species.

Some of the characteristics common amongst the Primroses are the four notched flower petals, the 8 pollen producing anthers, and a cross-shaped stigma, the female reproductive structure of the flower. All of those can be appreciated on this photo.

As has been true with other flowers that we have studied, photographs really bring the details to our attention. We found the shadows cast by the stamens and stigma onto the flower petals interesting.

The Common Evening Primrose flowers measure just under 2 inches and are clustered at the tip of a single, non-branching stem, allowing for a profusion of color as noted in the title photo and below. This burst of color is responsible for their other name -Sundrops.

But the plant’s flower bud also adds a nice contrasting red color to the bed.

The detail of the buds is fascinating.

Evening Primrose is a biennial, meaning that it takes two growing seasons to complete its life cycle. So after this season’s flowers are pollinated, seeds will form and be released to the ground where they will germinate to form a small plant that will overwinter. That plant will then grow next spring and flower. The plants that flowered this season, have completed their life cycle, will wither, and die.

Pollinators visit flowers for two things, pollen and nectar. This Bumblebee seemed to be concentrating on pollen collection.

That also appeared to be the case for this Honey Bee.

This smaller Masked Bee, on the other hand, is going face first into the nectar opening at the base of the flower.

This photo shows a successful pollination as pollen can be seen deposited on the stigma.

To be honest I hadn’t really noticed that the flowers close during the heat of the day. Perhaps that is because I tend to be most active in the garden in the morning and evening.

Common Evening Primrose, like many flowers, has a heavy flowering season from late spring to early summer, but may also have more isolated blooms appearing through the rest of the summer.

I think that my next endeavor with regards to Evening Primrose, will be to try to observe some of the nighttime pollinators visiting the plants. The Sphinx Moths are a fascinating group and it would be interesting to see which species we have in our garden.

Photos by Peggy Juengling Burns with the exception of the Sphinx Moth which was from the NC State Extension Publications website and was credited to Melinda DeLeon.