View source for Mirabilis melanotricha

{{Treatment/ID
|accepted_name=Mirabilis melanotricha
|accepted_authority=(Standley) Spellenberg
|publications={{Treatment/Publication
|title=Phytologia
|place=85: 99. 1999
|year=1999
}}
|common_names=Mountain four-o’clock
|special_status={{Treatment/ID/Special_status
|code=F
|label=Illustrated
}}
|basionyms={{Treatment/ID/Basionym
|name=Allionia melanotricha
|authority=Standley
|rank=species
|publication_title=Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb.
|publication_place=12: 351. 1909
}}
|synonyms=
|hierarchy=Nyctaginaceae;Mirabilis;Mirabilis sect. Oxybaphus;Mirabilis melanotricha
|hierarchy_nav=<div class="higher-taxa"><div class="higher-taxon"><small>family</small>[[Nyctaginaceae]]</div><div class="higher-taxon"><small>genus</small>[[Mirabilis]]</div><div class="higher-taxon"><small>section</small>[[Mirabilis sect. Oxybaphus]]</div><div class="higher-taxon"><small>species</small>[[Mirabilis melanotricha]]</div></div>
|volume=Volume 4
|mention_page=page 42, 53, 5
|treatment_page=page 52
}}<!--

--><span class="statement" id="st-undefined" data-properties=""><b>Stems </b>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. <b>Leaves</b> 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. <b>Inflorescences</b> 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. <b>Flowers</b> 3 per involucre; perianth bright purple-pink, 0.9–1.2 cm. <b>Fruits</b> 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.</span><!--

-->{{Treatment/Body
|phenology=Flowering mid summer–early fall.
|habitat=Conifer woodlands, mountain meadows, roadsides
|elevation=1900-3000 m
|distribution=Ariz.;Colo.;N.Mex.;Tex.;Mexico.
|discussion=<p>The erect habit, bright green and usually glabrous foliage, and dark involucres of <i>Mirabilis melanotricha</i> are distinctive in combination. Once collected and pressed, <i>M. melanotricha</i> becomes yet another “difficult” <i>Mirabilis</i>. In 1911, P. C. Standley noted that this species (as <i>Allionia</i> 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. <i>Mirabilis melanotricha</i> occurs in more mesic situations mostly at elevations above M. comata (here in synonymy in <i>M. albida</i>). It intergrades into <i>M. linearis</i> along its northern edge and lower elevations in New Mexico through <i>M. linearis </i>var.<i> decipiens</i> (Standley) S. L. Welsh. In the northeastern portion of its range, it may intergrade with <i>M. nyctaginea</i>; 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 <i>M. albida</i>, 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 <i>M. melanotricha</i>) might remain distinct from his concept of <i>M. albida</i>, which included C. F. Reed’s (1969) comprehensive M. oblongifolia.</p>
|tables=
|references=
}}<!--

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-->{{#Taxon:
name=Mirabilis melanotricha
|authority=(Standley) Spellenberg
|rank=species
|parent rank=section
|synonyms=
|basionyms=Allionia melanotricha
|family=Nyctaginaceae
|phenology=Flowering mid summer–early fall.
|habitat=Conifer woodlands, mountain meadows, roadsides
|elevation=1900-3000 m
|distribution=Ariz.;Colo.;N.Mex.;Tex.;Mexico.
|reference=None
|publication title=Phytologia
|publication year=1999
|special status=Illustrated
|source xml=https://bitbucket.org/aafc-mbb/fna-data-curation/src/2e0870ddd59836b60bcf96646a41e87ea5a5943a/coarse_grained_fna_xml/V4/V4_99.xml
|genus=Mirabilis
|section=Mirabilis sect. Oxybaphus
|species=Mirabilis melanotricha
}}<!--

-->[[Category:Treatment]][[Category:Mirabilis sect. Oxybaphus]]