Native Americans - Garden Plants – Evening Primrose

Names – the proper name for this famous plant is Oenothera Biennis and common names include evening primrose, night willow herb, evening star, fever plant, field primrose, King's cure all, scabish, tree primrose, and the rather poetic moth's moonflower!

Description - Evening primrose is a biennial plant with numerous, crinkled, lance-shaped leaves and green stems with red splotches. Flowers bloom after sunset and are yellow, four-petalled and highly fragrant.

Origins - Evening primrose was used by the North American Indians for a variety of medical problems as well as serving as a staple food. The leaves are cooked and eaten as greens and the roots are said to be delicious when boiled as for potatoes. Flowers are a sweet addition to salads or as a garnish and young seedpods are steamed as a delicacy in spring. It’s a commonplace wild flower in fields and ditches across the USA but is now grown commercially for its seed oil which is rich in GLA (gamma linoleic acid). GLA is an essential fatty acid that the body does not manufacture and is known to help prevent hardening of the arteries, heart disease, eczema, cirrhosis, rheumatoid arthritis, menopause, PMS, multiple sclerosis, and high blood pressure. In addition it has a positive effect in lowering cholesterol levels, and is important in treating cirrhosis of the liver. Research also demonstrates that primrose oil helps relieve pain and inflammation – a bit of a magic potion, in fact! It’s an easy plant to cultivate as it likes full sun, average moisture, and a somewhat sandy or friable soil, but finds other growing conditions perfectly acceptable. It has a very odd growth pattern, forming a stubby rosette during the first year, but becoming tall during the second year, when it flowers, sets seed, and dies.

American Evening Primrose photograph by The Mermot, used under a creative commons attribution licence

 

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