Herbs, forming hemispheric clumps 6-8 dm diam., glabrous to sparsely puberulent. Stems 4-8 dm. Leaves spreading; petioles of proximal leaves 1-2.7 cm; blades of midstem leaves widely elliptic to ovate, 3-8-5 × 3-5.5 cm, base obtuse, often asymmetric, apex acute or acuminate. Involucres: peduncle 25-85 mm; involucres erect or ascending, 26-40 mm; bracts 5, 50% connate, apex acute to widely ovate. Flowers 6(-16) per involucre; perianth magenta, funnelform, 4-5 cm. Fruits light brown, with 5 blunt angles and 10 slender ribs visible when wet, widely obovoid to widely ellipsoid, 7-7.5 mm, tuberculate, glabrous or very sparsely puberulent, secreting mucilage most abundantly on ribs when wetted. 2n = 66.

Flowering late spring. Gravelly slopes and flats, with juniper; 400-1000 m; Calif.

Mirabilis greenei may have as many as sixteen flowers per involucral bract.