High-Plains Beeblossom: A Lesser-Known Native Wildflower Worth Discovering
If you’re on the hunt for unique native wildflowers that fly under the radar, you might want to get acquainted with high-plains beeblossom (Oenothera cinerea cinerea). This perennial wildflower belongs to the evening primrose family and offers gardeners something a little different from the usual suspects in native plant catalogs.
What Exactly Is High-Plains Beeblossom?
High-plains beeblossom is a perennial forb—basically a non-woody flowering plant that comes back year after year. You might also see it listed under its former scientific names, including Gaura villosa varieties, which gives you a clue about its close relatives in the plant world.
This plant has an interesting classification situation. While it’s found across several states, its native status in the lower 48 is somewhat unclear in current databases, which isn’t uncommon for plants that have undergone recent taxonomic revisions.
Where Does It Call Home?
High-plains beeblossom has been documented growing across a surprising range of states: California, Colorado, Kansas, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. This wide distribution suggests it’s a pretty adaptable plant, though the scattered pattern raises some questions about its natural versus introduced range in certain areas.
Should You Plant High-Plains Beeblossom?
Here’s where things get a bit tricky. Due to limited readily available information about this specific plant’s growing requirements, invasive potential, and ecological role, it’s challenging to give you the full scoop on whether it’s perfect for your garden.
What we do know:
- It’s a perennial, so you won’t need to replant it annually
- As a forb, it likely produces flowers that could attract pollinators
- Its wide geographic distribution suggests reasonable adaptability
However, given the uncertainty around its native status and growing requirements, you might want to consider better-documented alternatives from the evening primrose family, such as pink evening primrose (Oenothera speciosa) or white evening primrose (Oenothera caespitosa), depending on your region.
The Bottom Line
High-plains beeblossom represents one of those intriguing native plants that could use more attention from both researchers and gardeners. While we’d love to give you detailed growing instructions and tell you exactly how it’ll perform in your garden, the current lack of comprehensive cultivation information means you’d be somewhat experimenting if you choose to grow it.
If you do come across seeds or plants from a reputable native plant source, it could be worth trying in a small area to see how it performs. Just make sure you’re getting it from a supplier who can verify its source and appropriateness for your specific region.
For now, this might be one to file under plants to watch rather than plants to plant—at least until more growing information becomes readily available to help gardeners succeed with it.
