Oenothera
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Oenothera is a genus of about 125 species of annual, biennial and perennial herbs. It is the type genus of the family Onagraceae. They are known as evening primroses, and are native to North and South America.
O. biennis, the Common evening primrose, native to eastern North America, is a very popular garden plant, and is now also naturalised in parts of Europe and Asia. Its pale yellow flowers open in the evening, hence the name "evening primrose".
The seeds of the evening primrose contains gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), a rare essential fatty acid.
It was assigned to the genus Onagra, which gave the family Onagraceae its name. Onagra -- meaning "(food of) onager" -- was first used in botany in 1587 and in an English publication in P. Miller's 1754 Gardeners Dictionary: Abridged. Its modern name Oenothera -- first used by Linnaeus in his Systema Naturæ -- also has donkey-related origin, meaning "ass-catcher". In Greek oeno means "donkey", while thera means "to catch, trap, pursue". It is believed that the name refers to the toxicity of the plant that can be used to trap donkeys and other animals. In 1860, William Baird suggests, however, that oeno could be interpreted as "wine" in Greek. He believes that it refers to the fact that the root of the edible Oenothera biennis was used as a wine flavour additive.
Uses
The O. biennis oil is used against the premenstruation pains.