Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - White four-o'clock

WHITE FOUR-O'CLOCK

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Mirabilis albida (Walt. ) Heimerl

[=Mirabilis hirsuta (Pursh ) MacMill.]

Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 8-48 inches

Family: Nyctaginaceae - Four-o'clock Family

Flowering Period: June, July, August, September,October

Stems:

Erect or ascending, few or highly branched, glabrous or sparsely to densely hirsute or long-pilose, often glaucous.

Leaves:

Opposite, simple; petioles of principal leaves 0 to 1.6 inch; blades green to blue-gray, linear-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate or ovate, 1.2 to 4.5 inches long, 1/8 to 1 inch wide, thin to thick, base attenuate or cuneate to round, truncate, or cordate, margins entire to nearly wavy, tip acute, round, or obtuse, surfaces glabrous, viscid-pubescent, or hirsute.

Inflorescences:

Cymes, axillary or terminal, few-branched; bracts 5, usually connate, green or papery; peduncles 1/25 to 1 inch, viscid-pubescent to puberulent with curled hairs; involucres 1/6 to 1/4 inch at flowering, 1/3 to 3/5 inch in fruit, sparsely to densely pubescent.

Flowers:

1-3 per involucre; perianth funnelform to campanulate; calyx white to pink or rose, 1/3 to 2/5 inch; stamens 3-5; stigmas capitate.

Fruits:

Achenes, brown to dark brown, obovoid, 1/6 to 1/5 inch, hard, 5-ribbed, pubescent, angles usually tuberculate, sometimes merely rugose or smooth, sides tuberculate.

Habitat:

Tallgrass prairies and rocky sites in oak-hickory woodlands

Distribution:

Principally east 1/2 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Comments:

Mirabilis albida is highly variable throughout its range. Mirabilis, wonderful, and albida, whitish, alluding to the color of the stems and leaves.

White four-o'clock