Ipomoea cairica

Ipomoea cairica (L.) Sweet, Hort. Brit. 287. 1826; Gamble, Fl. Pres. Madras 4: 918. 1923; Fl. China @ eFloras.org 16: 309; Austin, Fl. Pak @ eFloras.org p. 40; Convolvulus cairicus L., Syst. Nat. (ed. 10) 2: 922. 1759; Ipomoea palmata Forsk., Fl. Aegypt.-Arab. 43. 1775; Choisy in DC., Prodr. 9: 386. 1845; Clarke in Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 4: 214. 1885; Trimen, Handb. Fl. Ceylon 3: 225. 1895; Parker, For. Fl. Punj. ed. 1. 364. 1918 (Reprint 1973).

Herbs, perennial, twining; roots tuberous; axial parts glabrous. Stem up to 5 m long, thinly angular, +/- tuberculate or smooth. Leaves alternate, simple, up to 5 cm x 10 cm; petioles 2-8 cm long, base with leafy pseudostipules; leaf blade palmately 5-parted to base; lobes ovate, ovate-lanceolate or elliptic, (2.5-) 4-5 cm x (0.5-) 2-2.5 cm., entire, minutely undulate or serrulate, apex acute or obtuse, mucronulate; basal pair usually again lobed or parted, middle lobe larger. Inflorescence 1- to few-flowered, often 3-flowered pedunculate cyme; peduncle 2-8 cm long; bracts and bracteoles early deciduous, small, squamiform (scale-like); pedicels 0.5-2 cm, glabrous, sometimes verruculose. Flowers actinomorphic, bisexual, 5-merous, hypogynous, funnelform, 5-8 cm across. Sepals 5, unequal, outer 2 sepals small, 4-6.5 mm long; inner ones larger, 5-9 mm long, glabrous, abaxially +/- verruculose, margin paler, scarious. Corolla pink, purple or reddish purple, with a darker centre, rarely white, funnelform, 5-7 cm long; lobes 5, almost obsolete; petals with +/- conspicuous midpetaline band. Stamens 5, included, unequal; filaments unequal, dilated and pubescent at base; anthers oblong, basifixed, dehiscence longitudinal Disc annular or cupular, entire or obscurely 5-lobed. Carpels 2, syncarpous; ovary glabrous, 2-locular, 2 ovules per loculus, placentation axile; style 1; stigma 2-lobed. Capsule +/- globose, 4-valved, 10-12 mm long, each valve with one seed. Seeds black, ca. 5 mm long, densely short tomentose, margin with larger hairs.

Flowering and Fruiting: June to December
Common Names: Cairo Morning Glory, Messina Creeper, Ivy-leaved Morning Glory, Coastal Morning Glory, Railway Creeper, Mile a minute Vine.