Mirabilis jalapa

Mirabilis jalapa

€5,90
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Mirabilis jalapa
  • Mirabilis jalapa
  • Mirabilis jalapa
  • Mirabilis jalapa
  • Mirabilis jalapa
Mirabilis jalapa

Mirabilis jalapa

€5,90
Organic
Sustainable
Locally grown

Mirabilis jalapa creates a dense, low growing bush of glossy green foliage crowned with flared fuchsia trumpet flowers.

A curious aspect of M. jalapa is that flowers with different colors grow simultaneously on the same plant. Additionally, an individual flower can be splashed with different colors. 

A single flower can be plain yellow, red, magenta, pink, or white, or have a combination of sectors, flakes, and spots. Here we have a majority fuchsia lineage so normally there will be no color variation. But if there is - how fun!

These blooms open in the late afternoon, releasing a sweet fragrance, and close again when struck by the morning sun. 

This distinctive trait gave the plant its French name of Belle-de-nuit — its fragrant flowers carry fluorescent pigments that trace patterns on the corolla and attract hawkmoth pollinators
Flowering June, July, August, September, October
Flower Color Fuchsia
Frost Tolerance -10°C
Size 80cm H x 40cm W
Soil Well Draining
Origin Guatemala, Mexico, Chile and Peru
pda710
€5,90
In stock

🪴9x9 cm

🚂 Ships across EU
🌱 Grown in our nursery

The flowers are used in food colouring.
🧑‍🍳 The leaves may be eaten cooked as well, but only as an emergency food
Gardening Tips

🌿 The foliage will die back but the rhizome will allow the plant to endure the European winters.
💦 In the beginning, they require constant watering to become properly established.
☀️ Often in the sun the leaves wither, then return vigorously in the evening
The Botany

The name of Mirabilis jalapa was given by Carl Von Linneus in 1753 is formed from the scientific Latin Mirabilis meaning "admirable" by allusion to the remarkable colors of its flowers and the specific name jalapa that would refer to its origin in the Jalapa in Guatemala.

Mirabilis jalapa, or Marvel of Peru, is a herbaceous perennial from the Nyctaginaceae family, native to the dry tropical regions of Central and South America, including Guatemala, Mexico, Chile and Peru.

It develops a large, blackish tuberous root with a long history of traditional medicinal use in various parts of the world.

The Four O'Clock Flower grows to 80 cm in height, sometimes more, spreading 40 to 60 cm across.

In temperate climates it disappears in winter and flowers from June to October; in tropical regions it is truly perennial and flowers all year round.

As with the wild species, the flowers open in the evening and close the following day when the sun reaches them, releasing a sweet scent from dusk until deep into the night.


The black fruit appears at the base of the flower once it has fallen. The dichotomous stems are solid, four-angled, fleshy, green to reddish in colour and swollen at the nodes, bearing opposite, oval leaves with a rounded to slightly heart-shaped base, in mid glossy green — paler on chalky soils and in full sun.

Usually, the flowers are yellow, pink and white, but a different combination of flowers growing on the same single four o’clock plant can be found. Another interesting point is a color-changing phenomenon. For example, in the yellow variety, as the plant matures, it can display flowers that gradually change to a dark pink colour. Similarly, white flowers can change to light violet. Despite their appearance, the flowers are not formed from petals– rather they are a pigmented modification of the calyx. Similarly, the 'calyx' is an involucre of bracts. The flowers are funnel-shaped and pentalobed, they have no cup (replaced by bracteal leaves) but are made of a corolla.

Flower patterns are referred to as sectors (whole sections of flower), flakes (stripes of varying length), and spots.
The Myth

Mirabilis jalapa is believed to have been cultivated by the Aztecs for medicinal and ornamental purposes.

The plant has a potential for the bioremediation of soils polluted with moderate concentrations of heavy metals such as cadmium.

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