Gaura coccinea Pursh

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Onagraceae

• Scientific Name

  Gaura coccinea Pursh

• Description

  Species Description - Clumped perennial 2–5(10) dm, spreading by roots, strigose or partly villous, varying to subglabrous; lvs crowded, lanceolate to narrowly oblong, mostly 1–4 cm and entire or coarsely few-toothed, or the lower larger and more cleft, but deciduous; spikes 5–15 cm, densely fld and elongating with age, often lax or nodding at the tip; bracts 2–5 mm; sep 5–9 mm, separately reflexed; pet 3–7 mm, becoming orange-red or deep maroon; fr strigose-puberulent, sessile, the terminal part 3–5 mm, strongly 4-angled and pyramidal (but with concave sides), abruptly contracted to a stout, 8-ribbed, subterete, stipe-like base mostly 1.5–2 mm long and nearly or fully as thick; seeds (1–)3 or 4; 2n=14, 28, 42, 56. Dry prairies and plains; s. Sask. and w. Minn. to w. Mo. and Tex., w. to B.C. and Calif., and s. to Mex.; occasionally intr. eastward to N.Y. May–Aug.

• Common Names

  scarlet gaura