What is an unusual trait of four-o'clocks?
By Chelsie Vandaveer
February 28, 2002
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The four-o'clock (Mirabilis jalapa Linnaeus) is a perennial native to tropical America. It is grown as an annual in temperate zones. If grown where the soil never freezes, the taproot becomes massive. There have been reports of old four-o'clock taproots weighing up to 40 pounds (18 kilograms).
Four-o'clocks open near sunset and wilt after sunrise. Each flower lasts only one night. The fragrant blossoms attract the large sphinx moths and probably others. The beautifully colored flowers have no petals. The flower consists of five sepals fused into a flaring tube with five rounded lobes.
The common four-o'clock seed passed from one gardener to the next has an unusual trait. The flowers on any particular four-o'clock plant may be all one color, a mix of two or more colors, or variegated.
Unlike most flowering plants that derive their colors from anthocyanins in the cell vacuoles, the pigments in four-o'clocks are betalains. Betalain pigments are only found in the order Caryophyllales containing the plant families of beets, pokeweed, cacti, and four-o'clocks, and in the Amanita fungi.
Chemically, betalains are derived from the amino acid, tyrosine a protein building-block. Betalains are of two types, betacyanins which provide reds and purples, and betaxanthins which provide yellows and oranges. Betalains do not absorb ultraviolet light; the flowers show a spectrum of colors we cannot see, but must serve to guide the pollinators.
Secret Garden of Tadine has posted a photograph of a four-o'clock showing a mix of flowers on the same plant. To view the photograph, click on the link:
http://www.tadine.ca/fleurs/mirabilis/belle01.shtml
Solana Seeds has a close-up of a variegated four-o'clock. To view the variegated flowers, click on the link:
http://solanaseeds.netfirms.com/quatreheures.jpg
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