Oenothera nevadensis Kellogg, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 2: 224, fig. 70. 1863; Camissonia nevadensis (Kellogg) P. H. Raven; O. gauriflora Torrey & A. Gray var. caput-medusae H. Léveillé; O. gauriflora var. vermiculata M. E. Jones; Sphaerostigma nevadense (Kellogg) A. Heller; S. tortuosum A. Nelson

Herbs glabrate to strigillose in distal and younger parts and capsules. Stems branched from base, primary stem short, lateral stems decumbent, usually with leaves mostly in a tuft toward apex, 1–5(–18) cm, flowering proximally and distally. Leaves mostly cauline, clustered toward ends of branches, 1–4.5 × 0.2–0.8 cm; petiole 1–3 cm; blade oblanceolate or narrowly oblanceolate, margins entire. Inflorescences erect. Flowers opening at sunset; floral tube 2.2–3.5 mm, glabrous inside; sepals 3.2–4 mm; petals white, fading pinkish, 3–5 mm; episepalous filaments 4.5–4.8 mm, epipetalous filaments 3–4 mm, anthers 0.4–1.5 mm; style 6–7 mm, glabrous, stigma 0.5–0.8 mm diam., exserted beyond anthers at anthesis. Capsules cylindrical and thickened proximally, spreading and highly contorted, 4-angled, 8–14 × 1–2 mm, regularly but tardily dehiscent. Seeds monomorphic, gray, 1.2–1.5 × 0.3–0.4 mm, finely reticulate. 2n = 14.

Flowering Apr–May(–early Jun). Local and colonial on clay, sandy, or gravelly soils, often vernally wet sites, somewhat tolerant of alkali soils; 1200–1700 m; Nev.

Eremothera nevadensis is known only from west-central Nevada in western Churchill, Douglas, northern Lyon, Ormsby, Pershing, Storey, and southern Washoe counties. P. H. Raven (1969) presumed Eremothera nevadensis to be self-compatible.