Narrowleaf Four O'clock

Stems decumbent, ascending, or erect, sparsely leafy with few stems to very leafy and bushy branched, leafy primarily in proximal ¹/5 to throughout, 1-1.3 dm, basally minutely puberulent in 2 lines, sparsely or densely spreading-hirsute, or rarely glabrate or glabrous; distally minutely puberulent in 2 lines, sparsely or densely spreading-hirsute, or rarely glabrate or glabrous, usually glandular-puberulent or pubescent in inflorescence. Leaves strongly ascending to spreading at 5-80°; petiole 0-1.5 cm; blade green to blue-gray and glaucous, linear to linear-lanceolate, rarely lanceolate, 3-11.5 × 0.1-1(-1.8) cm, thin to fleshy, thick, and succulent, base long attenuate or narrowly acute, apex acutely tapered to rounded, surfaces glabrous, glandular-pubescent, or hirsute. Inflorescences axillary and terminal, when axillary, consisting of single involucres or short branches, when terminal with ± well-defined central axis and shorter side branches, or narrowly to widely forked without main axis; peduncle 3-10 mm, usually spreading glandular-puberulent or pilose, crosswalls of hairs pale or dark; involucres pale green, sometimes tinged with purple, narrowly to widely bell-shaped, 3-6 mm in flower, 4-10(-15) mm in fruit, spreading viscid-pubescent to hirsute, 40-70% connate, lobes ovate. Flowers 3 per involucre; perianth white to purple-pink, 0.7-1.1 cm. Fruits olive brown or dark olive brown, narrowly obovate and tapering at both ends to obovoid, 3.1-5.5 mm, pubescent with spreading crinkled hairs in tufts or ± evenly distributed, hairs 0.1-0.5 mm; ribs sometimes slightly paler, slightly elevated above surface (usually less than 0.5 times as wide as high), low rounded to round-angled, 0.5-1 times width of sulci, 0.3-1 times as wide as high, smooth throughout or sometimes rugose on sides, occasionally interrupted and tuberculate near apex; sulci with small or rarely large tubercles, or low and inconspicuous or occasionally high and prominently cross-rugose.

Allionia linearis Pursh, Fl. Amer. Sept. 2: 728. 1814; Mirabilis hirsuta (Pursh) MacMillan var. linearis (Pursh) B. Boivin; Oxybaphus linearis (Pursh) B. L. Robinson

Allionia linearis Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 728. 1814
Calymenia angusti j 'olia Nutt. Gen. 1: 26. 1818.
Calymenia decumbens Nutt. Gen. 1: 26. 1818.
Allionia decumbens Spreng. Syst. 1: 384. 1825.
Oxybaphus angustifolius Sweet, Hort. Brit. 1: 334. 1826.
Oxybaphus decumbens Sweet, Hort. Brit. 1: 334. 1826.
Oxybaphus angustifolius linearis Choisy, in DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 433. 1849.
Oxybaphus angustifolius decumbens Choisy, in DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 433. 1849.
Mirabilis angustifolia MacM. Metasp. Minn. Valley 216. 1892.
Oxybaphus Bodini Hoiz. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 1: 287. 1893.
Allionia Bodini Morong, Mem. Torrey Club 5: 354. 1894.
Allionia Bushii Britton, Bull. Torrey Club 22: 223. 1895.
Oxybaphus angustifolius viscidus Eastw. Proc. Calif. Acad. II. 6: 313. 1896.
Mirabilis nyctaginea angustifolia Heimerl, Beitr. Syst. Nyct. 22. 1897.
Allionia diffusa Heller, Minn. Bot. Stud. 2: 33. 1898.
Mirabilis linearis Heimerl, Ann. Cons. Jard. Geneve 5: 186. 1901.
Allionia glandulifera A. Nelson, Bot. Gaz. 34: 364. 1902.
Allionia divaricata Rydb. Bull. Torrey Club 29: 691. 1902.
Allionia viscida Cockerell, Proc. Acad. Phila. 1904: 108. 1904.
Allionia montanensis Osterhout, Muhlenbergia 1: 39. 1906.
Mirabilis decumbens Daniels, Univ. Missouri Stud. Sci. 1: 276. 1907.
Oxybaphus linearis B. L/. Robinson, Rhodora 10: 31. 1908.
Allionia petrophila Standley, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 340. 1909.
Allionia Vaseyi Standley, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 343. 1909.
Allionia pinetorum Standley, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 344. 1909.
Allionia pilosa decumbens A. Nelson; Coult. & Nels. Man. 173. 1909.
Allionia linearis Bodini A. Nelson; Coult. & Nels. Man. 174. 1909.
Plants erect or decumbent, 1-12 dm. high, the stems solitary or several, simple or branched below, the branches ascending, slender or stout, glaucous, often nearly white, glabrous below or bifariously puberulent, viscid-puberulent or shortvillous above, the internodes short or elongate; leaves numerous or few, sometimes crowded, the blades narrowly linear to lancelinear, 3-10 cm. long, 1-5 or rarely 12 mm. wide, attenuate and sessile at the base or gradually narrowed to a short stout marginate petiole, narrowed to the obtuse or acute apex, entire, thick and succulent, usually glaucous, at least beneath, often ciliate, glabrous, or those of the uppermost leaves viscid-puberulent; involucres slender-pedunculate, usually all axillary in young plants and with cleistogamous flowers, the plants in age developing a loosely branched cymose panicle, the branches slender, opposite or alternate, viscid-puberulent or short-villous with mostly fulvous hairs, bearing few or numerous reduced bractlike leaves, these sessile, linear to broadly ovate; involucre at anthesis about 4 mm. long, densely viscidvillous with fulvous hairs, the lobes ovate-orbicular or oval, rounded or acutish at the apex, the involucres in age 12-20 mm. broad, the lobes rounded, conspicuously veined; flowers usually 3 in each involucre, the perianth about 10 mm. long, sparsely pilose, pale-pink to purplish-red, the limb deeply lobed, the lobes retuse; anthocarp 4.5-5 mm. long, obovoid, brownish or olivaceous, the angles smooth, the sides coarsely transverse-nigose ; seed rounded-obovoid, 3 mm. long, pale yellowish-brown.
Type locality: "Upper Louisiana.''
Distribution: Usually in dry soil, South Dakota to Montana, Arizona, San Luis Potosi, Texas, and western Missouri, rarely adventive eastward.

Allionia linearis Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 728. 1814
Calymenia an gustifolia Nutt. Gen. 1: 26. 1818.
Calymenia decumbens Nutt. Gen. 1: 26. 1818.
Allionia decumbens Spreng. Syst. 1: 384. 1825.
Oxybaphus angustifolius Sweet," Hort. Brit. 1: 334. 1826.
Oxybaphus decumbens Sweet, Hort. Brit. 1 : 334. 1826.
Oxybaphus angustifolius linearis Choisy, in DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 433. 1849.
Oxybaphus angustifolius decumbens Choisy, in DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 433. 1849.
Mirabilis angustifolia MacM. Metasp. Minn. Valley 216. 1892.
Oxybaphus Bodini Holz. Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 1: 287. 1893.
Allionia Bodini Morong, Mem, Torrey Club 5: 354. 1894.
Allionia Bushii Britton, Bull. Torrey Club 22: 223. 1895.
Oxybaphus angustifolius viscidus Eastw. Proc. Calif. Acad. II. 6: 313. 1896.
Mirabilis nyctaginea angustifolia Heimerl, Beitr. Syst. Nyct. 22. 1897.
Allionia diffusa Heller, Minn. Bot. Stud. 2: 33. 1898.
Mirabilis linearis Heimerl, Ann. Cons. Jard. Geneve 5: 186. 1901.
Allionia glandulifera A. Nelson, Bot. Gaz. 34: 364. 1902.
Allionia divaricata Rydb. Bull. Torrey Club 29: 691. 1902.
Allionia viscida Cockerell, Proc. Acad. Phila. 1904: 108. 1904.
Allionia montanensis Osterhout, Muhlenbergia 1: 39. 1906.
Mirabilis decumbens Daniels, Univ. Missouri Stud. Sci. 1: 276. 1907,
Oxybaphus linearis B. L. Robinson, Rhodora 10: 31. 1908.
Allionia petrophila Standley, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 340. 1909.
Allionia Vaseyi Standley, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 343. 1909.
Allionia pinetorum Standley, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 344. 1909.
Allionia pilosa decumbens A. Nelson; Coult. & Nels. Man. 173. 1909.
Allionia linearis Bodini A. Nelson; Coult. & Nels. Man. 174. 1909.
Plants erect or decumbent, 1-12 dm. high, the stems solitary or several, simple or branched below, the branches ascending, slender or stout, glaucous, often nearly white, glabrous below or bifariously puberulent, viscid-puberulent or short-villous above, the internodes short or elongate; leaves numerous or few, sometimes crowded, the blades narrowly linear to lancelinear, 3-10 cm. long, 1-5 or rarely 12 mm. wide, attenuate and sessile at the base or gradually narrowed to a short stout marginate petiole, narrowed to the obtuse or acute apex, entire, thick and succulent, usually glaucous, at least beneath, often ciliate, glabrous, or those of the uppermost leaves viscid-puberulent; involucres slender-pedunculate, usually all axillary in young plants and with cleistogamous flowers, the plants in age developing a loosely branched cymose panicle, the branches slender, opposite or alternate, viscid-puberulent or short-villous with mostly fulvous hairs, bearing few or numerous reduced bractlike leaves, these sessile, *
linear to broadly ovate; involucre at anthesis about 4 mm. long, densely viscid-villous with fulvous hairs, the lobes ovate-orbicular or oval, rounded or acutish at the apex, the involucres in age 12-20 mm. broad, the lobes rounded, conspicuously veined; flowers usually 3 in each involucre, the perianth about 10 mm. long, sparsely pilose, pale-pink to purplish-red, the limb deeply lobed, the lobes retuse; anthocarp 4.5-5 mm. long, obovoid, brownish or olivaceous, the angles smooth, the sides coarsely transverse-rugose; seed rounded-obovoid, 3 mm. long, pale yellowish-brown.
Type locality: "Upper Louisiana.''
Distribution: Usually in dry soil, South Dakota to Montana, Arizona, San Luis Potosi, Texas, and western Missouri, rarely adventive eastward.

Mirabilis linearis (common name narrowleaf four o'clock) is a plant. Among the Zuni people, the root is eaten to induce urination and vomiting. They also take an infusion of the root for stomachache.