Oenothera caespitosa

Oenothera caespitosa

Evening Primrose is a fairly well-known edible plant, and we have a few species in this area which are fairly common. The one I see the most is Oenothera caespitosa, commonly known as Tufted Evening Primrose. This species differs in several ways from the Evening Primrose  which is most commonly used for food, which is Oenothera biennis.

Most importantly, O. biennis is a biennial (as implied by the name), while O. caespitosa is a perennial. This means the root grows completely differently. A biennial plant is like a carrot: it will not flower the first year; instead it just grows a rosette of leaves and stores up energy in a fat root the first year, and then the second year it will use that energy to send up a large flower stalk. A biennial root is best at the end of the first year. In the second year it soon turns tough or woody as the flower stalk forms. A perennial plant will flower every year mostly with the energy generated that year, so the root never needs to get fat with sugars. This means the root of our O. caespitosa is not particularly good to eat. It is always somewhat tough. If you want to eat it, the best part is the crown at the base of the leaves. The tap root can be quite long, but almost immediately gets woody and soon becomes small. It's best to stick with the root crown, which is more tender.

Another important difference is what caespitosa or tufted implies: this plant is entirely stemless. The leaves and flowers grow directly from the root crown. So don't look for edible shoots on this plant, since there aren't any.

As for the taste, I'm afraid there is more bad news there. All parts of the plant have a spicy flavor, and leave a bit of a burny/tingly sensation in the mouth. As you eat more the sensation will slowly increase until you don't want to eat more. Some people have compared it with horseradish, but I don't feel anything in the sinuses, so I would say it is more comparable with capsicum or hot peppers. The burning sensation also stays in the mouth for quite a while afterwards. The leaves are a bit tough, and remind me of kale. Boiling them will make them slightly less tough, but doesn't reduce the spiciness much. One should use them sparingly and combine them with other greens.

The root crown also has this spiciness. It is white and tender and somewhat mucilaginous. It could be used along with other less spicy root, as some people suggest, but I'm not sure it the small amounts you can get from the crowns are worth the effort.

The flowers and buds are better than the leaves, but also have the spiciness in them. Evening primrose flowers have a long tube below where the petals spread out. It looks like a stem as first glance, but is all part of the flower. The part I would recommend most, is the base of the flower or immature seed pod, including the long tube. It is sweeter and more tender than the leaves.

Oenothera caespitosa is rather disappointing compared to the reports for O. biennis. But it's not entirely bad, so I'm still going to try some of the species which put up stalks for their flowers when I get a chance.