Herbs and shrubs, rarely trees to 30m often with epidermal oil-cells, often watery-plants. Usually with internal phloem.
Distribution
Cosmopolitic, emhasis on warm and temperate North-America and Mexiko (here all known genera are present). Open, dry or moist locations.
Floral characters
Usually bisexual and regular, often 4-merous (sometimes 5-merous in Jussiaeaoideae = Ludwigia), solitary or in spikes to pannicles, usually with long hypanthium, nectariferous within. distinct inferior ovary and organization of sepals and petals in 4's . long tube with the many-seeded ovary. stamens in the throat of the tube, make identification fairly easy. Calyx often valvate, lobes on hypanthium or on disk, often in 2 whorls, sometimes reduced to A2, anthers with longitudinal slits, pollen in monads or tetrads with viscin threads in groups, G a compound ovary with as many locs as K or partitions imperfect, so the placentation is axile or parietal. 1-8 bitegmic ovules.
Leaf characters
Whorled, opposite or spirally arranged, simple, entire to pinnatifid, stipules sometimes present.
Stipules
present, sometimes
Fruit characters
Loculicidal capsule, or berry or nut
Glands
present, nectaries
Hairs
present, simple
Odor
present: Oenothera caespitosa emits a hauntingly sweet fragrance that can be smelled at a distance of several hundred feet.
Uses
astringent, antibiotic, mucilaginous, expectorant, antitussive, and digestive stimulant have given way to modern uses concentrating on a single property of the plant. The oil is high in gamma-linolenic acid= omega-6 fatty acid= also known as Vitamin F= (GLA, is rarely found in foods and not produced in the human body), which is readily converted in the body to prostaglandin E1: premenstrual syndrome, benign breast disease, cholesterol regulation, platelet aggregation, blood pressure regulation, obesity, atopic disease, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, mental disorders, rheumatism, alcoholism, and childhood hyperactivity. Many cultivated ornamentally, especially Clarkia, Epilobium, Fuchsia(Nachtkerze), ludwigia, Oenothera. Species of E.O. & Circaea can be weedy. Shoots of Epilobium have been used as pot-herbs and all species are grand honey-plants. The roots of Oenothera biennis cultivars are eaten in Europe, the fuirts of some fuchsias are eaten. Fussiaea supplies a yellow dye, and some of the woody fuchsias yield both ink and a black dye. Fuchsia excorticata, a shreddy-barked tree from new Zealand is most unsual, the pollen is brilliant, royal blue! possibly useful for artist colour-pigments
Chemical characters
Proanthocyanidins present (very rarely), or absent; in a species of Jussieua delphinidin. Flavonols present (usually); quercetin, or kaempferol and quercetin, or quercetin and myricetin. Ellagic acid present (11 species, 8 genera). Ursolic acid present. Sugars transported as oligosaccharides + sucrose (in Hauya). C3 physiology recorded directly in Calylophus, Epilobium, Gaura, Oenothera.
Distribution maps
(online von http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/ . Dort zitiert wie unter jedem Diagramm vermerkt):
Onagraceae
map: based on Raven 1963, 1967; Meusel et al. 1978, P. Hoch & W. Wagner, pers. comm.
