Mirabilis jalapa Seeds | Marvel of Peru
LATIN NAME: Mirabilis jalapa
COMMON NAME: Marvel of Peru
Plant Profile
Drop a marvel of Peru into a border and the garden gains a clock. The fragrant, trumpet-shaped flowers stay shut through the bright morning, then swing open in the mid-afternoon and stay open into the evening, closing again the next morning. Plant a row of them and you can read the hour by the blooms, which is exactly how the common name four o’clock arose.
The colours come from betalains, the same pigment group found in beets and bougainvillea, not from anthocyanins like most red flowers. This is a family trait of the Nyctaginaceae and it explains why mirabilis can flash yellow, magenta and white side by side: the betacyanin and betaxanthin balances shift among the cells of a single blossom.
What looks like a five-petalled corolla is actually a petaloid calyx, a coloured structure formed from the sepals. The true petals are reduced or absent, and the showy part is the fused calyx tube. Gardeners rarely notice, because the illusion is perfect, but the botanist sees a flower built the wrong way round for a typical garden bloom.
One of the odd joys of this species is that a single plant can open different colours on the same evening, and a branch can sport solid and striped flowers at once. The variation is genetic and chimeric, which is why seed-grown rows look like a mixed packet even when every seed came from one parent.
Where frost falls, lift the tuber once the top has died back, brush off the soil, and store it dry and cool until the next warm spell. Replant it shallow so the crown sits just below the surface, and it will send up new stems within a few weeks of steady warmth.
Science & Biotechnology
The name jalapa invites confusion with the old purgative drug jalap, but that resin comes from Ipomoea purga, a morning glory of the Convolvulaceae, not from this plant. Mirabilis jalapa is ornamental only; the pharmacopeia’s jalap is a different species entirely, and the shared place name is a historical accident.
The flower scent is released on a rhythm tied to opening, strongest in the cool of the evening when the moths are flying. The volatile mix is light and sweet rather than heavy, which is why the plant reads as a courtyard perfume rather than a heady tropical note.
Uses & Benefits
The evening opening and sweet scent point to the real pollinator: hawkmoths and other nocturnal visitors that home in on pale, fragrant blooms. Bees find the flowers too, but the timing favours the moths, and a bed of mirabilis on a warm night will hum with sphinx moths working the tubes.
Because the pigments are stable and vivid, mirabilis has long been a subject for the ornamental breeder, who selects for cleaner colour, bigger tubes and a longer evening show. The historic cultivars still sold as Marvel of Peru are largely selections of the wild Mexican form rather than modern hybrids.
Growing from Seed
Mirabilis jalapa is a tuberous perennial herb in warm climates and a tender annual where frost comes. It carries ovate, heart-shaped leaves on stout, much-branched stems and throws flowers in shades of pink, red, yellow and white, often marbled on the same plant. The whole thing has the cheerful, old-fashioned look of a courtyard that has been tended for generations.
Underground, mirabilis stores a napiform, turnip-like tuber that lets the plant survive a cool, dry off-season and return the next warm season. In zones with hard frost the top dies back and the tuber can be lifted and kept dry, then replanted when the soil warms. Left in the ground in mild climates, it simply re-sprouts.
Sow in a warm spot after the cold is past, or start tubers in pots and move them out once the nights stay mild. The seed is round and black with a wrinkled coat, and it sits happily at a shallow cover in open, sunny ground.
Set the seed at about its own width of cover and keep the bed evenly moist until the seedling stands with its first pair of true leaves open. Thin crowded seedlings so each has room to branch, because a single plant makes a broad, bushy mound by mid season.
Our Take
Marvel of Peru is the easiest way to add a working flower clock to a warm border, and children love the colour splits. Pair it with other evening performers such as the evening primrose, the flowering tobacco, and the angel’s trumpet for a night-scented bed.
Related Reading
Gardeners who grow Marvel of Peru often pair it with these related subjects: