• Editor’s Note: “Roadside Botany” is a snapshot look at the amazing plant life that can be found in Kane County, IL, with photography and text by Valerie Blaine, nature programs manager for the Forest Preserve District of Kane County. You can reach her at blainevalerie@kaneforest.com.

Lots of flowers are calling it quits. It’s October, after all. But there are late-bloomers, the optimists, and these are treats to find in the fall.

Evening-primrose is one that caught my eye on a blustery cool day this week. Evening-primrose is a native plant that likes full sun. It grows in prairies, but it does well in disturbed areas as well.  You’ll find it along the side of the trail, with other botanical vagabonds.

The flowers are a lovely light lemon-yellow, and they even smell lemony. The blossoms open in the evening and remain open until morning. Hence, the name Evening-primrose. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, though. You can see them open slightly during the day. And on cloudy days, the flowers will open wide.

When they’re open – wow! What a treat to look inside.

The coolest thing is a structure that looks like a crazy four-legged critter. This is the pistil, with its four stigmas. This is where the pollen lands. The flower also has a super long tube. Nectar is deep in the tube, so an insect (or a bird) that wants any of that sweet treat has to have a really long tongue to get it. Hummingbirds “fit the bill” — but they’re active in the daytime, and the flowers aren’t always open in the day. Enter, the hawkmoth.

Hawkmoths are part of a large group of moths that get confused with Hummingbirds. They are thick-bodied, have long tongues, and hover over flowers. There are species of hawkmoths that are primarily nocturnal, and these guys visit Evening-primrose flowers on their nightly rounds. When they land on the flower for nectar, they end up with pollen on their faces.

Hawkmoths, then, are prime pollinators of Evening-primrose. Nocturnal flowers, nocturnal pollinators. Cool how that works. The flowers produce seed pods that look like little bunches of bananas. When the “bananas” (seed pods) are ripe, Goldfinches and other birds feast on the seeds.

Evening-primrose has played a big role as an edible and medicinal plant, both in indigenous cultures and among modern herbalists (and now “foragers”). On the list of Native Americans’ uses of the plant, I find this one noteworthy: “A tea was made from the plant and used as a dietary aid or stimulant to treat laziness and ‘overfatness.’”

In light of today’s struggle with a sedentary, overweight society, this seems particularly apt.

Evening-primrose is definitely worth checking out on your next evening walk. You can find it trailside in many Kane County forest preserves