PlantFiles: Bigfruit Evening Primrose, Missouri Evening Primrose
Oenothera macrocarpa

In Illinois, Missouri Evening Primrose has been observed in natural habitat in only St. Clair county, where it may be extirpated. Habitats include hill prairies and limestone glades. Outside of the state, this plant is also observed in dry prairies and barrens with sparse vegetation; these habitats often have gravelly or sandy soil. Missouri Evening Primrose is often grown in flower gardens.

Missouri Evening Primrose has striking flowers that are quite large for the size of the plant. It can be confused with no other plant that occurs (or used to occur) in the natural habitats of Illinois.

This is a very attractive and showy flower making it a nice addition to a wildflower garden. Well suited for a rock garden. There are 4 distinct subspecies of Evening primrose, all are commonly called Missouri evening primrose, however each has their own subtle differences in identification, adaptation and geographic distribution.

This is a beautiful no maintenance well groomed plant. Their huge flowers offer a large splash of color and and certainly add to the "curb appeal" to our home.

They tolorate our northeast Wisconsin winters well - coming back each year a bit fuller than the year before. After five years the round low mound of flowers are about 2 1/2 feet across and are always in bloom from late spring through mid fall. It's not unusual for each plant to sport 10 to 12 spectacular flowers at any given time.

NOTE: None of ours are planted in full sun and all are doing very well.