FOUR-O’CLOCK FAMILY (Nyctaginaceae)
SMALL-FLOWERED FOUR-O’CLOCK PINK FOUR-O’CLOCK
Leaves opposite or alternate; flowers often surrounded by colored bracts; calyx tubular, often petal-like; petals absent; stamens 1 to many; ovary 1-celled.
Gray’s Umbrella-Wort. Pink Four-O’clock (Allionia grayana) has delicate pink flowers which have no petals, but the 5 united sepals are petal-like in appearance. The flowers are spreading or funnel-shaped and open in the afternoon. Several flowers are borne together and are surrounded at their bases by 5 short united floral leaves, forming a pale green veiny involucre which is sometimes mistaken for the flower. The clusters terminate the branches on a widely spreading plant about 2 ft. high.
Small-Flowered Four-O’clock (Allionia incarnata) is very abundant in Southwestern Texas to Arizona and South America. It forms a low, spreading plant, which is profusely covered with small pink blooms less than half an inch broad.
Narrow-Leaved Sand-Verbena (Abronia angustifolia) is a low plant with a dense head of pink flowers which are so fragrant that one plant will perfume the air for some distance. In favorable seasons the hills around El Paso are pink with the lovely blooms. It is called sand-verbena because of the verbena-like clusters.
DEVIL’S BOUQUET ANGEL’S TRUMPET
Devil’s Bouquet (Nyctaginia capitata) is also called skunk flower because of its heavy, disagreeable odor. The head-like clusters of scarlet flowers are very showy, being 2-3 in. broad. The 5-lobed flowers resemble those of the umbrella-worts and likewise open in the afternoons. The plants are low and scattered, but are quite common from Central and Southern Texas to Mexico and New Mexico from May to October.