Plant Name
Scientific Name: Allionia incarnata
Common Names: Trailing Windmills, Trailing Four O'Clock
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Annual, Perennial
Growth Habit: Herb/Forb
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert, Upland
Flower Color: Purplish pink to magenta
Flowering Season: Spring, Summer, Fall
Height: Trailing up to 5 feet (1.5 m) long
Description: Each 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide flower is actually a cluster of 3 bilaterally symmetric flowers. The flowers emerge from the leaf axils and have deeply scalloped petals. The flowers are followed by 5-ribbed fruit with a deeply convex stem end and 0 (common) to 4 teeth on each rib. The leaves are green, hairy, oval-shaped, and paired opposite each other but unequal in size. The leaves near the base of the plant are the largest. The stems are plump, trailing, and often reddish in color. Both the leaves and stems are hairy and sticky.
The less common, but very similar Annual Windmills (Allionia choisyi) has smaller, often paler flowers and fruit with a shallowly convex stem end and 4 to 8 teeth on each rib.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Caryophyllidae
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Nyctaginaceae – Four o'clock family
Genus: Allionia L. – windmills
Species: Allionia incarnata L. – trailing windmills
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