Four O'clock Flower

Mirabilis jalapa L. Sp. PL 177. 1753
Mirabilis odorata L. Cent. PI. 1: 7. 1755.
Mirabilis dichotoma L. Sp. PI. ed. 2. 252. 1762.
Jalapa dichotoma Crantz, Inst. 2: 266. 1766.
Jalapa congesta Moench, Meth. 508. 1794.
Nyctago versicolor Salisb. Prodr. 57. 1796.
Jalapa undulala Moench, Meth. Suppl. 196. 1802.
Nyctago Jalapae DC. Fl. Fr. 3: 426. 1805.
Nyctago mirabilis Jaume St.-Hil. Expos. Fam. 1: 212. 1805.
Mirabilis pedunculata Stokes, Bot. Mat. Med. 1: 311. 1812.
Mirabilis divaricata Lowe, Trans. Cambridge Phil. Soc. 17. 1831.
Mirabilis procera Bertol. Novi Coram. Bonon. 3: 15. 1839,
Mirabilis plani flora Trautv. Bull. Acad. Sci. St.-Petersb. 6: 216. 1840.
Trimista levigata Raf. Aut. Bot. 12. 1840.
Mirabilis ambigua Trautv. Linnaea 15: Lit. Ber. 97. 1841.
Mirabilis Jalapa procera Choisy, in DC. Prod. 13* : 428. 1849.
Mirabilis Jalapa ambigua Choisy, in DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 428. 1849.
Mirabilis Jalapa plant flora Choisy, in DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 428. 1849.
Mirabilis Jalapa odorata Heimerl, Bot. Jahrb. 21: 616. 1896.
Mirabilis Jalapa volcanica Standley, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 367. 1909.
Mirabilis Jalapa gracilis Standley, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 367. 1909. Mirabilis Jalapa Lindheimeri Standley, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 368. 1909. Mirabilis Jalapa ciliata Standley, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 368. 1909. Admirabilis peruana Nieuwl. Am. Midi. Nat. 3: 280. 1914.
Erect perennial, 4-10 dm. high, from a thick woody or fleshy root, much branched, the branches erect or ascending, slender or stout, glabrous, puberulent, or rarely short-villous, often viscid; petioles slender, 0.3-5 cm. long, the uppermost blades on very short petioles; leaf-blades ovate-deltoid, broadly ovate, ovate-oblong, or rarely lance-ovate, 4—14 cm. long, 2-8.5 cm. wide, subcordate to rounded at the base, short-decurrent, acute to attenuate at the ap'ex, often abruptly so, rarely obtuse, thin, bright-green, glabrous or rarely puberulent, usually ciliolate; peduncles 1-2 mm. long or rarely longer, or wanting, cymosely glomerate at the ends of the branches, the inflorescence bearing numerous reduced leaves; involucre campanulate, 7-15 mm. long, glabrous, puberulent, or short-villous, the lobes longer than the tube, linear-lanceolate to lance-ovate, acute to attenuate, usually ciliolate; perianth 3-5.5 cm. long, purplish-red (in cultivation often white, yellow, or variegated), glabrous or sparsely villous outside, the tube 2-5 mm. thick, gradually dilated upward, the limb 2-3.5 cm. broad, shallowly 5-lobed, the lobes broadly rounded; stamens 5, equaling or slightly exceeding the perianth; fruit obovoid or oval, 7-9 mm. long, 5-angled, verrucose or rugose, dark-brown or black, glabrous or puberulent.
Type locality: Described from cultivated plants.
Distribution: Western Texas, Mexico, Central America, and southward through tropical South America ; general in the West Indies but probably naturalized ; adventive in Florida and along the Gulf Coast of the United States and rarely escaping from cultivation elsewhere; widely cultivated and now naturalized through the tropical regions of the Old World.