Mirabilis laevis |
Mirabilis laevis var. retrorsa |
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desert four o'clock, desert wishbone, desert wishbone-bush, wishbone bush |
desert four o'clock, wishbone-bush |
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Stems | decumbent to erect, few and clambering through other vegetation to many, and then usually forming densely leafy and compact clumps, 1.5–15 dm, herbaceous, suffrutescent, or woody basally, glabrous, scabrous, puberulent, or villous, often glandular. |
usually many, clumped, often glabrous or glabrate basally, sparsely to densely retrorse-puberulent distally. |
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Leaves | spreading; petiole 0.1–2.2 cm; blade ovate, deltate-ovate, ovate-rhombic, subreniform, 1–4(–5.5) × 0.5–3.5(–5) cm, fleshy to slightly succulent, base cordate, truncate, or broadly obtuse, apex acute, obtuse, or rounded, surfaces glabrous, scabrous, puberulent, or villous, often glandular. |
blades 0.5–3.5 × 1–3.5 cm. |
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Inflorescences | widely cymose, or ± thyrsoid, involucres clustered, and nearly sessile at ends of branches, or solitary in axils on peduncles 3–12 mm; involucres 3–7 mm, lobes narrowly to broadly triangular, or triangular-lanceolate, base 30–50% of height. |
cymose, usually broad; branches ± equal throughout; involucres 5–7 mm; bracts 60–70% connate, lobes ovate-triangular orovate-oblong, base often 70–100% of height, apex obtuse or acute. |
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Flowers | 1(–2) per involucre; perianth white, pink, or shades of purple, 1–1.6 cm. |
perianth usually white, (rarely white tinged with pink at base, or pale pink). |
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Fruits | gray, dark brown, or nearly black, often mottled with dark brown or black, with or without 10 pale, diffuse lines, ovoid, obovoid, or nearly spheric, 3–5.5 mm, smooth or moderately rugose. |
gray-brown, dark charcoal brown, often dark mottled, often faintly marked with 10 paler longitudinal lines, ellipsoid, obovoid, or almost spheric, occasionally wider than long, 3.5–5 × 2.6–4 mm. |
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2n | = 62, 64, 66. |
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Mirabilis laevis |
Mirabilis laevis var. retrorsa |
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Phenology | Flowering late winter and spring, most vigorously in spring, occasionally in summer. | |||||||||
Habitat | Desert brushlands, banks | |||||||||
Elevation | 100-2000 m (300-6600 ft) | |||||||||
Distribution |
AZ; CA; NV; OR; UT; nw Mexico
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AZ; CA; NV; OR; UT; Mexico (Baja California) |
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Discussion | Varieties 4 (3 in the flora). Mirabilis laevis is a complex of poorly differentiated forms that differ to a greater or lesser extent primarily by perianth color, pubescence, and habit, characteristics that show imperfect geographic consistency. In general, white-flowered plants occur in arid areas east of the southern California mountains, and magenta-flowered plants occur west of the mountains; in the arid regions viscid-pubescent plants occur to the south, less viscid plants to the north. Sympatry and intergradation are frequent in the southern Sierra Nevada, southward along the east side of the southern California mountains, and on the northern portion of the peninsula of Baja California. The variety laevis, which is glabrous or glabrate, is restricted to the immediate coast and islands in the vicinity of Bahía Magdalena in Baja California Sur. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 4, p. 47. | FNA vol. 4, p. 49. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Nyctaginaceae > Mirabilis > sect. Oxybaphoides | Nyctaginaceae > Mirabilis > sect. Oxybaphoides > Mirabilis laevis | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | Oxybaphus laevis, Hesperonia laevis | M. retrorsa, Hesperonia retrorsa, M. bigelovii var. retrorsa, M. californica var. retrorsa | ||||||||
Name authority | (Bentham) Curran: Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., ser. 2, 1: 235. (1888) | (A. Heller) Jepson: Man. Fl. Pl. Calif., 340. (1923) | ||||||||
Web links |