Mirabilis melanotricha
Mirabilis laevis
black-hair umbrellawort, four o'clock, mountain four-o'clock, Standley's four o'clock
desert four o'clock, desert wishbone, desert wishbone-bush, wishbone bush
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
3 per involucre;
perianth bright purple-pink, 0.9–1.2 cm.
1(–2) per involucre;
perianth white, pink, or shades of purple, 1–1.6 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.
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.
Mirabilis melanotricha
Mirabilis laevis
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.)
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.)
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 |
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