Mirabilis laevis

Mirabilis laevis
File:Mirabilis laevis var. crassifolia 001.jpg
var. crassifolia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Core eudicots
Order:	Caryophyllales
Family:	Nyctaginaceae
Genus:	Mirabilis
Species:	M. laevis
Binomial name
Mirabilis laevis (Benth.) Curran

Mirabilis laevis, desert wishbone-bush, is a recently redefined species of flowering plant in the four o'clock family. Distribution is in the Southwestern United States and Northwest Mexico.

Description

Mirabilis laevis now includes the common California chaparral plant known as wishbone bush (formerly Mirabilis californica), and several very similar relatives previously classified as separate species and now as varieties.

Varieties

• Mirabilis laevis var. crassifolia is found in California chaparral and woodlands habitats in California and Baja California, including Cedros Island (namesake for synonym M. c. (A. Gray) var. cedrosensis (Standl.) J.F. Macbr.). The plant is also found in the Southern California Coast Ranges, Sierra Nevada foothills, Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, the White Mountains, and the Inyo Mountains.

• Mirabilis laevis var. retrorsa is found in the White and Inyo Mountains, Nevada, and Oregon, east to Utah, and south to Arizona and Northwest Mexico.

• Mirabilis laevis var. villosa has a similar distribution to Mirabilis laevis var. retrorsa.

References

• Spellenberg, R. & S. R. Rodriguez Tijerina. (2001). Geographic variation and taxonomy of North American species of Mirabilis, section Oxybaphoides (Nyctaginaceae). Sida 19:3 539-570.

External links

• Jepson Herbarium—Jepson Flora Project: Mirabilis laevis
• USDA Plants Profile