Mirabilis laevis
Mirabilis texensis
desert four o'clock, desert wishbone, desert wishbone-bush, wishbone bush
Texas four o'clock
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.
erect or ascending, few, sparsely leafy mostly in proximal 1/2, well branched, 5–10 dm, glabrate to sparsely spreading viscid-pubescent throughout, more densely so distally.
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.
ascending to spreading at 45–80°, abruptly reduced in inflorescence;
petiole 0.3–4 cm;
blade green, triangular-ovate to ovate, 2–7 × 2–7 cm, thick and moderately fleshy, base round to cordate, apex acute to rounded, surfaces glabrate to glandular.
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.
terminal and in distal axils, few branched, ± evenly forked, open;
peduncle 2–6 mm, spreading viscid-pubescent, crosswalls of hairs pale or dark;
involucres pale green, widely bell-shaped to almost rotate, 3–4 mm in flower, 6–13 mm in fruit, sparsely spreading viscid-pubescent, 90–100% connate, lobes round to very broadly obtuse.
1(–2) per involucre;
perianth white, pink, or shades of purple, 1–1.6 cm.
2–3 per involucre;
perianth pale pink to pink, 0.8–1 cm.
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.
reddish brown to brown, obovoid, 3–4 mm, densely glandular-puberulent with hairs 0.1 mm;
ribs low and round, as wide as sulci, 0.5 times as wide as high, covered with tall, shelflike tubercles;
sulci with prominent shelflike tubercles.
Mirabilis laevis
Mirabilis texensis
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.)
I. M. Johnston (1944) and B. L. Turner (1993b) noted the similarity of Mirabilis texensis to the weedy Mexican M. glabrifolia (Gomez Ortega) I. M. Johnston, rather than M. viscosa, with which it was associated by P. C. Standley (1918). Plants in Texas referred to as M. glabrifolia in floras and plant lists are M. texensis.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Perianth usually pink, lavender, or magenta, rarely white; lobes of involucre ovate or ovate-oblong, base of lobes 50-70% of their height; pubescence usually not notably viscid or retrorse (but stout curved hairs occur on plants along coast); inflorescences often narrow, ± thyrselike | var. crassifolia |
1. Perianth usually white, rarely pale pink or purplish; lobes of involucre often narrowly triangular, base of lobes 60-100% of their height; pubescence commonly viscid-puberulent, viscid-villous, or sparsely short pubescent with retrorse hairs; inflorescences usually broad, cymose | → 2 |
2. Plants viscid-puberulent to viscid-villous | var. villosa |
2. Plants retrorse-puberulent | var. retrorsa |
CA
OR
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
