Flower:

Densely flowered spikes, 2 to 6 inches long, elongating with age, often nodding at the tip. Flowers are about ½ inch across, initially white to pale pink, turning peach pink or shades of deep salmon red, darkening as they wither, with 4 widely-spaced spoon to paddle-shaped petals, arranged fan-like toward the upper side of the flower or may be more evenly distributed around the center. In the center are 8 slender white stamens, slightly longer than the petals, tipped with slender red anthers, arranged fan-like or spreading in all directions. The single style is also slender, longer than the stamens and has a pale, 4-parted tip.

The calyx at the base of the flower is tubular, finely hairy, the 4 sepal lobes ¼ to 1/3 inch long, narrowly oblong, about as long as the petals and longer than the calyx tube, strongly bent downward with the edges tightly rolled inward, often reddish. Somewhat resembling a stalk at the base of the calyx is the ovary, shorter than the calyx tube, slightly swollen in the middle, covered in short, white hairs.

Leaves and stems:

Leaves are simple and alternate, crowded along the central stem and smaller side branches, 1/3 to 1½ inches long, linear-oblong or lance-shaped, tapered to a narrow base, blunt or pointed at the tip, and stalkless. Edges are smooth or with a few teeth or shallow lobes, surfaces are grayish from short hairs or nearly smooth. Stems are single or multiple from base, erect to ascending, much branched above, angled or round in cross-section, densely covered in short, white hairs.

Fruit:

Fruit is ice-cream cone shaped, rounded on lower half, 4-sided with a pointed tip above, ¼ to 1/3 inch long, covered in short, white hairs.

Notes:

Scarlet Gaura, formerly Gaura coccinea, is a common western plains species whose range extends just into Minnesota's western counties. While not considered rare, like many prairie species, most of its natural habitat is now agricultural land and, in Minnesota at least, it is only found in untilled prairie remnants. In the Dakotas however, it can be found re-colonizing rural road margins surrounded by farm fields. It can easily be overlooked because, like many open prairie species, it flowers early in the morning, with the petals of that day quickly wilting away with the onset of the heat of the day. Interestingly, within this fleeting moment, petals that emerge white to pink tinged, rapidly darken to rich salmon pink or red before the petals completely shrivel.