Oenothera glazioviana was first described by
Marc Micheli in 1875. This species is of hybrid origin from a cross between two North American species,
Oenothera elata and
Oenothera grandiflora in Europe.
Oenothera lamarckiana About a century ago, it was believed that there was a different species, either native to some obscure and unknown place in North America, from which it had quickly spread across the world, or more likely a new species which had very recently evolved in the last few decades, possibly in Europe from a hybrid of two other species, and thence had become a common weed. These theories stemmed from the fact that although the species was now a common species, and while an obviously striking species unlikely to be overlooked by botanists, it had only been recorded in recent times, and never in a truly wild state.
At the time this
taxon was important for the brand new study of
genetics, the debate about the cause of evolution, whether that was
natural selection or
one of the alternatives such as
mutationism, and particularly to the discovery of
polyploidy. It was later discovered that it had, in fact, already been discovered and
described by a botanist in Brazil only a few decades beforehand, in 1875, as
Oenothera glazioviana, and had likely spread across the world from there since then, but this had apparently somehow been overlooked. ==Distribution==