Smooth Four-o'clock (Mirabilis glabra)

   

• Common English Names: Smooth Four-o'clock
• Common Spanish Names: None Known
• Scientific Name: Mirabilis glabra (formerly Oxybaphus glabra) (mere-RAB-ill-iss GLAY-bruh
• Family: Nyctaginaceae (Four-o'clock Family)
• Geographic Range: Dry, sandy soils in grasslands, woodland scrub, or in disturbed soils from Utah, Colorado, and Nebraska south to Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and the Panhandle of Texas. In the Chihuahua Desert region only on the sand hills along the eastern side of the Pecos River and the Samalayuca sand dunes just south of Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico.
• Description: Erect or ascending herbaceous perennial, ascending, usually smooth, glaucous or grayish green leaves, linear to narrowly ovate or oblong; white to pale pink flowers are usually terminal and solitary in pale green, widely bell shaped involucres which further enlarge in fruit; however, the flowers are commonly cleistogamous, closed and self-fertile.
• Notes: Related plants previously recognized as M. exaltata and M. carltonii are now considered synonyms under M. glabra.

Last Update: 1 Oct 2013