Marvel of peru
Mirabilis jalapa
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Description
Fruit and bud. It is a perennial, herbaceous, bushy plant that reaches stature heights of mostly 1 meter, rarely up to 2 meters, in height. It may also be grown as an annual, especially in the temperate zone. The single-seeded fruits are spherical, wrinkled and black upon maturity, having started out greenish-yellow. The stems are thick, full, quadrangular with many ramifications and rooting at the nodes. The posture is often prostrate.A curious aspect of M. jalapa is that flowers with different colors grow simultaneously on the same plant. Additionally, an individual flower can be splashed with different colors. Flower patterns are referred to as sectors (whole sections of flower), flakes (stripes of varying length), and spots. A single flower can be plain yellow, red, magenta, pink, or white, or have a combination of sectors, flakes, and spots. Furthermore, different combinations of flowers and patterns can occur on different flowers of the same plant.Usually, the flowers are yellow, pink and white, but a different combination of flowers growing on the same single four o’clock plant can be found. Another interesting point is a color-changing phenomenon. For example, in the yellow variety, as the plant matures, it can display flowers that gradually change to a dark pink colour. Similarly, white flowers can change to light violet. Despite their appearance, the flowers are not formed from petals – rather they are a pigmented modification of the calyx. Similarly, the 'calyx' is an involucre of bracts. The flowers are funnel-shaped and pentalobed, they have no cup (replaced by bracteal leaves) but are made of a corolla.The inflorescences contain three to seven unpopped flowers. Earning the name "four-clock flower", the fragrant flowers open in the late afternoon or early evening, and also in overcast weather, and exhale a scent reminiscent of the tobacco flower, and attract moths for pollination. The anthesis lasts from 16 to 20 hours and thus remains visible part of the day. The flowers are pollinated by long-tongued moths of the family Sphingidae, such as the sphinx moths or hawk moths and other nocturnal pollinators attracted by the fragrance.
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Taxonomy
Order
Caryophyllales
Family
Nyctaginaceae
Genus
Mirabilis
Characteristics
Bloom Time
Fall, Spring, Summer
Plant Type
Perennials, Annual, Perennial, Poisonous, Perennial herb to 1(–2) m. tall; roots tuberous.
Lifespan
Annual, Perennial
Flower
flowers opening late in the afternoon or in very cloudy weather, white to red, yellow or striped, tubular and trumpet-like, 5-lobed, Flowers purple, magenta, yellow or white, opening in late afternoon
Fruit
fruit leathery, 5-ribbed, Anthocarp subglobose to ellipsoid, 7–8 mm. long, black.
How to Grow
Water
Average
Sunlight
Full Sun, Full sun (6 or more hours of direct sunlight a day), Partial Shade (Direct sunlight only part of the day, 2-6 hours)
Benefits
Attracts
Birds
Butterflies
Hummingbirds
Songbirds