Allionia incarnata

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The Allionia incarnata is a flowering perennial often known by its common names: Trailing Four-o’clock, Trailing Windmills, or Pink Windmills. This herb often displays its bright pink or magenta flowers from April to October and can reach heights extending up to five feet long.

The flowers are short-stemmed and come out from the leaf axils. Allionia incarnata has scalloped petals and the leaves are generally dark green, oval and covered in a lair of hair. The leaves and stems also have a sticky characteristic and the stems spread out over the ground. The purple/pink flowers cluster together in groups of three to form one normal looking flower like that shown above. Allionia incarnata is generally found in elevations ranging from 780 to 1,820 meters as shown with this distribution map throughout Utah.

Allionia incarnata is also distributed from southeastern California to Colorado, into central Mexico and also in South America. They need little water but plenty of direct sunlight and do well in nearly all arid, desert-like environments. It is remarkably drought resistant and Allionia incarnata has been noted for centuries by scholars and was initially used by native people to treat common symptoms such as swelling, fever, diarrhea, or kidney problems.

Morgan Brgoch, Fall 2007