Mirabilis albida(Walter) Heimerl

white four o'clock

WFO wfo-0001086669 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Mirabilis albida, photographed by Annika Lindqvist
fig. a Annika Lindqvist, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-09-08 / obs. 157046885
Mirabilis albida, photographed by Jared Shorma
fig. b Jared Shorma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155465213
Mirabilis albida, photographed by Adriel Cholico
fig. c Adriel Cholico, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 154933985
Mirabilis albida, photographed by Annika Lindqvist
fig. d Annika Lindqvist, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 154471149
Mirabilis albida, photographed by Marilynn Miller
fig. e Marilynn Miller, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 148204646
Mirabilis albida, photographed by Annika Lindqvist
fig. f Annika Lindqvist, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 148434011
Mirabilis albida, photographed by Annika Lindqvist
fig. g Annika Lindqvist, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 139667777
Mirabilis albida, photographed by Annika Lindqvist
fig. h Annika Lindqvist, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 97684090

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 47 botanical countries

Regions where Mirabilis albida is native: Alabama, Alberta, Arizona, Arkansas, British Columbia, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Manitoba, Massachusetts, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Québec, Saskatchewan, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin, Wyoming AlabamaAlbertaArizonaArkansasBritish ColumbiaCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineManitobaMassachusettsMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SouthwestMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriNebraskaNevadaNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOntarioPennsylvaniaQuébecSaskatchewanSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahVermontWisconsinWyoming
Native distribution of Mirabilis albida, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Alberta ABT
Arizona ARI
Arkansas ARK
British Columbia BRC
California CAL
Colorado COL
Connecticut CNT
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Louisiana LOU
Maine MAI
Manitoba MAN
Massachusetts MAS
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southwest MXS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
Nebraska NEB
Nevada NEV
New Jersey NWJ
New Mexico NWM
New York NWY
North Dakota NDA
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Carolina SCA
South Dakota SDA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Utah UTA
Vermont VER
Wisconsin WIS
Wyoming WYO

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 65 in flower of 89 examined

Peak flowering in Oct. Each bar is the share of Mirabilis albida observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 65 of 89 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,200 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -18.5 °C 1.3 °C 6.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 24.5 °C 32.8 °C 34.9 °C
Annual rainfall 369 mm 881 mm 1,298 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 33 mm 148 mm 261 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,200 research-grade observations of Mirabilis albida that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 18 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Abronia oblongifolia (A.Gray) Small
  • Mirabilis ciliata (Standl.) Standl.
  • Mirabilis coahuilensis (Standl.) Standl.
  • Mirabilis eutricha Shinners
  • Mirabilis grayana (Standl.) Standl.
  • Mirabilis lanceolata (Rydb.) Standl.
  • Mirabilis pauciflora (Buckley) Standl.
  • Mirabilis pseudaggregata Heimerl
  • Oxybaphus albidus (Walter) Sweet
  • Oxybaphus coahuilensis (Standl.) Weath.
  • Oxybaphus comatus (Small) Weath.
  • Oxybaphus grayanus (Standl.) Standl.
  • Oxybaphus hirsutus (Pursh) Sweet
  • Oxybaphus lanceolatus (Rydb.) Standl.
  • Oxybaphus nyctagineus var. oblongifolius A.Gray
  • Oxybaphus pauciflorus Buckley
  • Oxybaphus pseudaggregatus (Heimerl) Weath.
  • Oxybaphus pumilus (Standl.) Standl.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.