Mirabilis longiflora

Mirabilis means “astonishing, marvelous” and this spectacular flower lives up to its name. Clusters of long, tubular flowers have spreading, white petals and twisting, purple-red stamens that extend far beyond the rosy-red throat. The sweet fragrance attracts hawk moths for night pollination.A tender perennial that is killed to the ground by frost, but resprouts from its large tuberous roots. Place it along walkways or near paths for the evening fragrance. Since it emerges in late spring, quickly reaching 1m high and wide, speedily disguising the dying bulb leaves beneath it so a cunning combination. Flowers from January. It is from sandy, gravelly soils, washes, canyons, roadsides; desert grasslands and scrub, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa woodlands in Southwest US and Mexico form higher elevations. Up to 1.5m 

ALAN SCHMIERER, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Habit: Kurt Stüber [1], CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons