Onagraceae

  
 

 

Genera : 17 - 18

Species: 640 - 675

Links to Genus Directory of Images:

 

Distribution: Cosmopolitan, but very diverse in the western portion of North America.

 

Economic Uses: As cultivated ornamentals such as willowherb, evening primrose and the greenhouse favorite, the hanging fuchsia.

 

Defining Features of Interest: With characters that make it distinctive from other families, this family has been studied extensively by molecular systematists so that much cytogenetic information exisits regarding it.

 

Fossil Evidence:Fossil in the Upper Cretacous and in various periods of the Tertiary.