By Tom Schweich
Now that the season has changed to Fall, I was thinking that I would have to write about “What is NOT in Bloom along Golden’s Trails.”
However, in the natural area of New Loveland Mine Park that burned last July, there are quite a few plants that are coming back, and some are blooming. The non-native agricultural crop alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) a perennial with small purple flowers and a very large and deep root was the first plant to sprout and bloom. Field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis L.), a noxious weed, with its morning glory-like flowers also made an early recovery.
Native plants are also recovering. Cowboy's delight (Sphaeralcea coccinea (Nutt.) Rydb. is making a comeback and beginning to flower. The cacti are growing new pads. The perennial prairie grasses are recovering, and goldy-locks (or rabbitbrush) — Ericameria nauseosa var. graveolens— is resprouting from the base.
Another plant now blooming is “Narrowleaf Four O'Clock” — Mirabilis linearis (Pursh) Heimerl. It has been seen in every Golden open space, though a sighting is often accidental because the plant can be hard to see. Narrow and dark green leaves and a brown stem seem to disappear into the background.
Mirabilis linearis is in the Four O’Clock family (Nyctaginaceae). The family takes its common name from Mirabilis jalapa L., the “Four O’Clock Flower” named so because the fragrant flowers open in the late afternoon or early evening and exhale a scent reminiscent of the tobacco flower to attract moths for pollination.
Gardeners may also be familiar with another member of the Four O’Clock family, bougainvillea (Bougainvillea spectabilis Willd.) displaying tiny white flowers surrounded by many showy pink bracts. Bracts are specialized modified leaves that surround the flowers.
Similarly, our narrowleaf four o’clock has small flowers and smaller fruits that are often outshined by large rose-colored bracts.
Beyond Golden, most Jefferson County sightings of narrowleaf four o'clock were made along the Front Range, with a few in the interior foothills. Our plant has been found throughout Colorado, though with less density in the northwest quarter. Like many of Golden’s native plants, narrowleaf four o'clock was first scientifically recognized by the early 19th century expeditions along the Missouri River in the Louisiana Purchase.
