Clarkias & Beeblossoms
What are they?
This is a group of annual or short-lived perennial plants that are almost exclusively native to western North America. They are related to the willowherbs and evening-primroses in the family Onagraceae and several species are grown in the UK as garden plants for their long display of bright flowers.
Where are they found?
Introduced as summer annuals or perennials for gardens, these plants are occasionally found where they have self-seeded on roadsides or rough ground.
Identification
Clarkias are rather variable in the appearance of their flowers, which can aid identification. As members of the Onagraceae, they typically have flowers with four sepals, four petals and eight stamens and the flowers appear in a terminal spike or cluster at the top of a leafy stem. Several species are simply known as 'Clarkia' in cultivation, while Clarkia amoena is typically cultivated as Godetia, which is an old genus name that is no longer used. As these names are unhelpful in defining the species accurately, I have used the English names that are well-established in their native North America.
Beeblossoms used to be on their own genus, Gaura, but are now placed in a larger grouping of Oenothera, with the evening-primroses. They have four, broad petals rather like those of evening-primroses, but have rather more open, 'spidery' flowers that are carried in slender spikes. There are several species in cultivation, but only one is widely cultivated.
White Beeblossom Oenothera lindheimeri
(White Gaura, Gaura lindheimeri) Introduced from southern North America as a garden annual and occasionally used in municipal amenity plantings. Flowers June to October. Grows to around 100cm in height. Flowers with four, pink or white, broad petals, in a slender, upright spike.
 |
 |
 |
 |
| |
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
| |
|
|
Farewell-to-spring Clarkia amoena
(Godetia) Introduced from western North America as a garden annual. Flowers May to June. Grows to around 50cm in height. Flowers broad-petalled, appearing in a tight cluster at the top of the stem and cultivated in a wide range of pinks, crimsons and white, often with a darker stripe down the midline of each petal. The flower base elongates into a tube which will become the seed capsule after fertilisation and giving it a structure similar to the flowers of willowherbs and evening-primroses.
| |
 |
|
 |
| |
|
|
|
Elegant Clarkia Clarkia unguiculata
Introduced from western North America as a garden annual. Flowers May to June. Grows to around 80cm in height. Petals with a narrow claw at the base, broadening out to a triangular or diamond-shaped limb. Flowers come in a wide range of pinks, reds and white. Sometimes also grown in a strangely disfigured, double-flowered form.
| |
 |
 |
| |
|
|
| |
 |
 |
| |
|
|