Nyctaginaceae

▪ plant family

 the four-o'clock family of flowering plants, in the pink, or carnation, order (Caryophyllales), containing about 30 genera with close to 400 species of herbs, shrubs, and trees, which are native to tropical and warm temperate areas of the world. Members of the family have smooth-edged leaves and petalless flowers. The flowers have a small, tubular, petal-like surrounding structure called the perianth—probably equivalent to the sepals in other plants—and coloured bracts (leaflike structures) that fuse and may resemble petals. In some species these bracts are like sepals and enclose a single, brightly coloured perianth whorl. The small dry fruit bears grooves or is winged; it consists of a single-seeded fruit surrounded by the persistent perianth tube. The fruit may be dry, fleshy, or covered in very sticky hairs. The sticky hairs are used to catch birds in some parts of the world. Four-o'clocks (Mirabilis jalapa), sand verbena (Abronia umbellata), and a showy vine of the South American Bougainvillea are widely cultivated as ornamentals.

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