Mirabilis melanotricha
Mirabilis albida
black-hair umbrellawort, four o'clock, mountain four-o'clock, Standley's four o'clock
dwarf four o'clock, hairy four-o'clock, hairy umbrellawort, pale umbrella-wort, white four o'clock
erect or strongly ascending, leafy mostly in proximal 2/3 of plant, openly forked distally, 5–12 dm, pubescent basally with minute curved hairs in 2 lines, spreading glandular-pilose distally.
1–many, erect to decumbent, few or highly branched, sparsely to densely leafy in basal 1/2 or throughout, 0.8–15 dm, glabrous to puberulent basally in 2 lines or throughout, hairs often awned, or stems villous and often viscid, or sometimes hirsute, hair types often mixed, spreading pubescent.
ascending at 10–60°, progressively reduced toward infloresence;
petiole 0.8–3 cm;
blade bright green, narrowly triangular-ovate to ovate, 3–10 × 0.8–4 cm, ± thin, base acute, obtuse, truncate, or cordate, apex acute to attenuate, or obtuse, often rounded at tip, surfaces glabrous or rarely puberulent.
ascending to spreading at 10–90°;
petiole 0–4 cm;
blade green to glaucous blue-gray, linear-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, ovate, or deltate, 1–11 × 0.6–2.5 cm in lanceolate leaves, 2–9 × 1–6.5 cm in ovate leaves, thin and fleshy to thick and coriaceous, base cuneate to round, truncate, or cordate, apex acute, obtuse, or round, surfaces glabrous or viscid-puberulent, viscid-villous, or hirsute.
axillary and terminal, few branched, ± evenly forked and open;
peduncle 2–9 mm, spreading glandular-villous, crosswalls of hairs dark purple or black;
involucres blushed with dark violet or black, at least in median region, widely bell-shaped, 3–6 mm in flower, 4–7 mm in fruit, spreading viscid-villous, 40–50% connate, lobes oblong to ovate, apex broadly acute.
axillary or terminal, few branched, ± evenly forked and open, or, when axillary, often consisting only of single involucres (and then flowers commonly cleistogamous);
peduncle 1–25 mm, puberulent with curled hairs, hispid, villous, or viscid-villous, crosswalls of hairs pale;
involucres pale green or sometimes blushed with purple when young, widely bell-shaped, 4–7 mm in flower, 5–15 mm in fruit, sparsely to densely pubescent with small curled hairs or long spreading hairs, often viscid, 50–80% connate, lobes ovate, triangular-ovate, broadly ovate, or occasionally round.
3 per involucre;
perianth bright purple-pink, 0.9–1.2 cm.
(1–)3 per involucre;
perianth white, pink, or deep red-violet, 0.8–1.5 cm.
dark grayish to blackish brown, sometimes dark, dull, reddish brown, narrowly obovoid, 3–4 mm, spreading-pilose, hairs often apearing loosely shaggy and somewhat tufted, (0.1–)0.2–0.3 mm;
ribs ± same color as sulci, low and round, 0.7–1 times width of sulci, 0.5 times as wide as high, slightly rugose or warty;
sulci almost smooth to slightly rugose or with very low tubercules.
brown to dark brown with pale tan, brown, or dark brown ribs, obovoid to narrowly obovate and tapering at both ends, 3.5–5.5 mm, pubescent with tufted spreading hairs 0.1–0.5 mm, with or without minute glandular hairs;
ribs round or round-angled, (0.3–)0.7–1.5 times width of sulci, 0.5–1 times as wide as high, with tall shelflike tubercles (eastern part of range), smooth or somewhat rugose or moderately tuberculate (western part of range);
sulci with prominent, pale, shelflike tubercles (eastern), minutely rugose or with small low warts (western).
= 58.
Mirabilis melanotricha
Mirabilis albida
The erect habit, bright green and usually glabrous foliage, and dark involucres of Mirabilis melanotricha are distinctive in combination. Once collected and pressed, M. melanotricha becomes yet another “difficult” Mirabilis. In 1911, P. C. Standley noted that this species (as Allionia melanotricha) was one of the most variable in the genus, and in 1918 he submerged it in A. comata, which in the field is a grayish green, clump-forming, glandular-pubescent plant with decumbent-ascending stems. Mirabilis melanotricha occurs in more mesic situations mostly at elevations above M. comata (here in synonymy in M. albida). It intergrades into M. linearis along its northern edge and lower elevations in New Mexico through M. linearis var. decipiens (Standley) S. L. Welsh. In the northeastern portion of its range, it may intergrade with M. nyctaginea; fruits in that region sometimes are slightly more reddish and more tuberculate than usual. Along the eastern portion of its range, it also intergrades into M. albida, as plants become more pubescent and fleshy. B. L. Turner (1993b) noted that M. comata (apparently in the sense of its common usage, as applied to plants here classified as M. melanotricha) might remain distinct from his concept of M. albida, which included C. F. Reed’s (1969) comprehensive M. oblongifolia.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
In the eastern half of the continent, Mirabilis albida is reasonably uniform, usually erect, with lanceolate or narrowly oblong leaves, and fruits with large, wartlike tubercles on ribs and sulci. These fruits are very similar to those of M. nyctaginea, except they are usually yellowish brown rather than reddish brown. On the western plains, M. albida intergrades with M. linearis. R. Spellenberg (1998), in attempting to maintain a fairly uniform M. albida, provided a table distinguishing among it, M. oblongifolia, and M. melanotricha. Distinguishing leaf forms of M. oblongifolia as circumscribed by C. F. Reed (1969) from western races of M. albida becomes untenable, as proposed by B. L. Turner (1993b). Individual specimens are sometimes very different, but in a series of populations distinctions merge. The minute glandular hairs beneath the tufts of larger hairs and the presence of large, shelflike tubercles are fairly consistent throughout the eastern half of the continent. In the southwestern mountains, where M. oblongifolia in the broad sense occurs, and in the northern Rocky Mountains, where M. lanceolata occurs (as these phases in the complex have been named), both features are either inconsistent or absent, the fruits becoming much less warty and more like those of M. linearis. Some phases, such as M. comata, and Allionia pratensis, seem to form reasonably recognizable geographically and ecologically restricted populations and may be worthy of taxonomic recognition, perhaps at the infraspecific level. The type of M. hirsuta has the general form of broad-leaved plains races of M. albida is lightly hispid on basal parts. The exceedingly hispid, broad-leaved forms commonly identified as M. hirsuta from near the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains are here recognized as M. rotundifolia; the hispid narrow-leaved phases from the southwestern plains are included within M. linearis.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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