Trailing Windmills

Allionia incarnata was used by indigenous peoples to treat swellings, was added to baths to reduce fever, and also prepared as a decoction to treat diarrhea and kidney ailments (S. Cheatham et al. 1995, vol. 1). Occasionally fruits of A. incarnata are shallowly convex and resemble, in this respect, the fruits of A. choisyi.

Herbs, perennial, sometimes annual, sparingly glandular puberulent to spreading viscid-villous. Stems often reddish, 0.1-1.5 m. Leaves progressively reduced distally; distal leaves proportionately narrower than proximal; larger leaves: petiole 2-25 mm, equaling or shorter than blade; blade usually flat, sometimes undulate, 20-65 × 10-35 mm, base often oblique, obtuse, or round, margins entire or sinuate, apex acute, sometimes obtuse or round. Inflorescences: peduncle 3-25(-30) mm, involucres ovoid when mature, 4-6.5(-9) mm. Perianth deep pink to magenta, 5-15 mm. Fruits deeply convex, 2.9-4.7 × 1.5-2.8 mm; lateral ribs with 0-4 teeth, teeth usually broadly (rarely narrowly) triangular, never gland tipped, or edge of fruit wings entire or with only irregular undulations and incisions, concave side of fruit with 4-7 glands per row (glands rarely continuous or 2 rows glandless); stalks equaling or shorter than diameter of glandular head.

Wedelia incarnata (Linnaeus) Kuntze; Wedeliella incarnta (Linnaeus) Cockerell

Wedeliella incarnata (L.) Cockerell, Torreya 9 : 167. 1909
Allionia incarnata L. Syst. ed. 10. 890. 1759.
Allionia nialamides Benth. Bot. Voy. Sulph. 44. 1844.
Wedelia incarnata Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 533. 1891.
Wedelia incarnata anodonia Standley, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 333. 1909.
Wedelia incarnata villosa Standley, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 333. 1909.
Wedelia incarnata nudata Standley, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 334. 1909.
Wedeliella incarnata anodonta Cockerell, Torreya 9: 167. 1909.
Wedeliella incarnata villosa Cockerell, Torreya 9: 167. 1909.
Wedeliella incarnata nudata Cockerell, Torreya 9: 167. 1909.
Allionia incarnata multiserrata Heimerl, Symb. Ant. 7: 212. 1912.
Perennial from a slender or often very thick, vertical, woody root; stems numerous, 2-10 dm. long, slender or |tout, much branched, densely viscid-villous or glandular-puberulent, rarely glabrate, often tinged with red, the internodes short or usually elongate; leaves of a pair very unequal, the petioles 0.3-2.2 cm. long, the blades broadly deltoid-orbicular to oval, oval-ovate, oblong, or ovate, 1-6 cm. long, 0.6-4.5 cm. wide, subcordate or rounded at the base and unequal, rounded to acute at the apex, entire or sinuate, often crispate, thick and somewhat fleshy, yellowishgreen above, glaucous or at least paler beneath, glandularpuberulent or viscid-villous, at least when young, frequently scabrous on the upper surface,
often glabrate in age; involucres numerous, on slender peduncles 5 cm. long or short, the lobes obovate-orbicular, 5-8 mm. long, rounded or obtuse at the apex, densely viscid-villous; perianth 7-15 mm. long, purplish-red or rarely white, viscid-villous or puberulent outside; fruit 3-4.5 mm. long, pale-brown or olive, the inner side 3-costate, shallowly transverse-rugose,
the sides usually with 3-5 low broad teeth, or the teeth rarely more numerous and slender, the margins rarely entire, strongly incurved, the outer surface bearing 2 parallel rows of shortstipitate or long-stipitate glands.
Type locality: Near Cumana, Venezuela.
Distribution: In dry, sandy soil, southeastern California to southern Utah and Colorado, and western Texas, southward to Lower California and Puebla; Hispaniola; Venezuela to Argentina
and Chile.

Allionia incarnata is a flowering plant in the four o'clock family (Nyctaginaceae) native to the Caribbean, the southern United States, and south through Central America and most of western South America. It is a perennial (sometimes annual) herbaceous plant with dark pink flowers. Allionia incarnata is known as pink three-flower, pink windmills, trailing allionia, trailing four-o'clock, and trailing windmills.

Three varieties are accepted:

Allionia incarnata var. incarnata L. Allionia incarnata var. nudata (Standl.) Munz Allionia incarnata var. villosa (Standl.) B.L.Turner

Allionia incarnata var. incarnata flower

Entire plant

Fruits