Evening Primrose 5,000 seeds

Evening primrose is a native of North America and was introduced into European botanical gardens in 1614 from Virginia, USA. It has since become a wild plant and is a familiar sight on roadsides, dunes, railway banks and waste places. It grows as far north as 65? N in Finland.

It is a biennial plant. In the wild seed germinates in the spring and in the first year the plant forms a rosette of leaves which is flat to the ground and which may grow up to 30 cm across by the autumn. This maximises overwintering survival chances. In the spring of the second (reproductive) year the plant produces a central stem with a variable number of branches; it grows to a height of 20-200 cm. Each stem bears numerous yellow blooms which open in the evening. Flowering normally starts in July and fresh flowers are produced each day for several months. They are self-pollinated but some are cross-pollinated and they can be pollinated by moths.

The sepals are green, and the yellow petals are broader than they are long (15-30 mm). After pollination, a long seed pod is formed which is divided longitudinally into 4 compartments, each containing many tiny seeds (diameter 1mm). The seeds mature from September to October and have a minimum 1000 grain weight of 500 mg.