Plant of the Week

Four o’clock
Mirabilis nyctaginea (Michx.) MacM.
other common names: umbrellawort, common four o’clock
Mirabilis: from Latin for “wonderful” or “strange.” The genus name was once Admirabilis, but it was shortened by Linnaeus. (Carolus Linnaeus was the Swedish naturalist and botanist who established the modern method of applying genus and species names to all plants and animals. His book Species Plantarum, published in 1753, provides the basis for plant classification.)
Nyctaginea: from Greek, indirectly meaning “nightblooming”
Four o’clock family: Nyctaginaceae

Photograph by Thomas Rosburg, Wildflowers of the Tallgrass Prairie: The Upper Midwest, Second Edition