Planting Mystery with the Pride of Peru

Image Gallery Illustration by Michele Tremaine

“Girls, hurry! You don’t want to miss the Grand Opening!” I heard my grandmother call late one summer afternoon.

Visits with Gran were always an adventure. She loved nature and was a gardener, a hiker and a rock hound. My sister and I were never bored when we visited my grandmother. Being a retired teacher and talented storyteller, Gran had the ability to get our attention. The magic of a flower blooming in the afternoon was a “Grand Opening” to her and a curiosity to us.

Gran explained the mysteries of a plant named the Pride of Peru as it opened before our eyes. The Pride of Peru, or Mirabilis jalapa, is most often called the four o’clock plant. It opens at sunset and closes at sunrise. Gran explained that it also opens on cloudy days. She said the plant’s bright, tropical-looking multicolored flowers are nature’s way of cheering up a dull day.

The colors range from yellow, red, pink and white, to purple and mixed color blossoms. One of Gran’s plants had bi-colored blooms with red on one side of the bloom and white on the other side. They reminded me of peppermint candy. Individual flowers are trumpet shaped, and are about an inch across at the end and two inches long.

“Why does this plant open at four o’clock?” I asked, anxious to solve one of the mysteries of the plant.

“The plant is responding to the temperature of the air, not the time of day,” my grandmother replied, warming to her topic.

“Four o’clock flowers have a fragrance that attracts hummingbirds and butterflies even when they are closed. The flowers are a puzzle because they have no petals. The showy part is part of the sepal, which in most plants is green and leaf-like. It’s rare not to have petals in the plant kingdom,” concluded Gran, as she pulled cotton drawstring bags containing seeds from her pocket.