Mirabilis laevis var. villosa

Wishbone bush

Family: Nyctaginaceae · Type: perennial · Native

Wishbone bush is a California native perennial found in the White and Inyo Mountains and eastern Desert regions in rocky places at elevations below 2,000 meters. Flowering throughout the year, this plant produces white to pale pink flowers in bell-shaped involucres 5 to 6 millimeters long with widely funnel-shaped perianths 8 to 12 millimeters across. Growing with branched stems that are generously covered in glandular hairs, it forms a distinctive shrubby structure. Its leaves are small, ranging from 0.5 to 4 centimeters in blade length, and also covered in glandular hairs. The fruit is generally ovoid, lightly dotted and often mottled, with rarely visible surface lines.

Habitat: Rocky places

Bloom period: +- all year

Elevation: < 2000 m

Bioregions: W&ampI, D (esp e D)

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, Kern, Riverside, Los Angeles, Fresno, Imperial, San Diego, Mono, Lassen, San Luis Obispo, Tulare, Monterey, Ventura

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.