Mirabilis (plant)
Vielblütige miracle flower ( Mirabilis multiflora )
Miracle Flowers ( mirabilis) are a genus of the family of magic flowers plants ( Nyctaginaceae ).
Features
The magic flowers are mostly perennial, rarely annual, herbaceous plants, often halbstrauchig. You are bald or hairy, often sticky. They have a taproot that is slim and rope shaped to bulbous. The stems are erect to decumbent, the internodes have no sticky tapes.
The leaves are petiolate or sessile, each pair approximately equal. The leaf blade is thin to thick - fleshy, the leaf base is symmetrical.
The inflorescences are terminal or in axils. The inflorescence has stalked involucral bracts, which carry one to 16 flowers. The inflorescence is usually a Zyme. The bracts are permanent five in number and usually grow together, and form a herbaceous to membranous involucre.
The flowers are hermaphroditic, chasmogam and / or kleistogam. In cleistogamous flowers the perianth is a small dome. In chasmogamen the perianth is radial symmetry to slightly bilaterally symmetrical, bell - to funnel- shaped, with the corolla tube gradually or abruptly expanded. There are three to six stamens. The stylus reach beyond the stamens, their scars are capitate.
The fruits are radial symmetry and usually have five round to square ribs. The shape of the fruit is obovate, ellipsoidal to almost spherical. The surface may be smooth, leathery, glabrous or hairy.
Dissemination
The genus is widespread in temperate and tropical regions, especially in North and South America. At least one species is native in South Asia. The magic flower ( Mirabilis jalapa ) was spread by people around the world.
System
With around 60 species Mirabilis is the most diverse genus of Nyctaginaceae family.
A. Heimerl divided the genus in 1934 in six sections a. The taxonomy of the species is often difficult, because forms are morphologically and ecologically very different from one another, have no distinguishable reproductive characteristics. Is especially prominent this problem in the section Oxybaphus due to autogamy Xenogamie, the persistent nature and high chromosome numbers.
The sections are:
- Section Mirabilis
- Section Mirabilopsis Heimerl
- Section Oxybaphoides A. Gray
- Section Oxybaphus (L' Heritier ex Willdenow ) Heimerl
- Section Paramirabilis Heimerl, only in South America
- Section Quamoclidion ( Choisy ) A. Gray
The following species belong to this genus (selection):
- Mirabilis albida (Walter ) Heimerl; Home: North America
- Mirabilis alipes ( S. Watson ) Pilz; Home: Western United States
- Mirabilis coccinea ( Torr. ) Benth. & Hook. f; Home: USA, Northern Mexico
- Mirabilis expansa ( Ruiz & Pav ) Standlschmaus. ; Home: Bolivia, Peru
- Mirabilis greenei S. Watson; Home: California
- Mirabilis himalaica ( Edgew. ) Heimerl; Home: India and China ( Gansu, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan )
- Miracle flower ( Mirabilis jalapa L.); is naturalized worldwide
- Mirabilis laevis ( Benth. ) Curran; Home: U.S. and Mexico
- Mirabilis linearis ( Pursh ) Heimerl; Home: Canada, USA and Mexico
- Mirabilis longiflora L.; Home: Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Mexico and Guatemala
- Mirabilis macfarlanei Constance & Rollins; Home: Idaho, Oregon
- Mirabilis multiflora ( Torr. ) A. Gray; Home: U.S. and Mexico
- Mirabilis nyctaginea ( Michx. ) Macmill. ; Home: Canada, USA and Mexico
- Mirabilis oxybaphoides ( A. Gray ) A. Gray; Home: U.S. and Mexico
- Mirabilis rotundifolia (Greene) Standlschmaus. ; Home: Colorado
- Mirabilis viscosa Cav.; Home: Mexico and Peru.
Use
Some species are used as a dye supplier for cosmetic products, food and as medicine. Mirabilis jalapa is a common ornamental plant.
Documents
- Richard W. Spellenberg: Mirabilis. In: Flora of North America. Volume 4, page 40