Ipomoea triloba

Ipomoea triloba L., Sp. Pl. 1: 161. 1753; Fl. China @eFloras.org 16: 307.Batatas triloba (L.) Choisy, Mem. Soc. Phys. Geneve 8: 49. 1838; Convolvulus trilobus (L.) Desr., Encycl. 3(2): 564. 1792; Ipomoea blancoi Choisy, Prodr. 9: 389. 1845; Ipomoea grandifolia (Dammer) O’ Donell, Arq. Mus. Paranaense 9: 222, f. 6. 1952; Jacquemontia grandifolia Dammer, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 23(57): 41. 1897.

An annual twiner, 1-3 m long, stem angular, ca. 1.5 mm wide, with milky sap. Leaves alternate, 5-10 (-12) cm long, longer than wide; leaf blade ovate to orbicular in outline, simple, entire or coarsely dentate or shallowly to deeply 3-lobed, base cordate, apex acuminate; petiole slender, 4.5-10 cm long, glabrous, sometimes tuberculate, with an adaxial groove. Inflorescence axillary, peduncle shorter or longer than petiole, stout, angular throughout, tuberculate towards apex, 1-flowered or few to several-flowered dense umbellate cymes, branches of cymes very short, flowers aggregate; pedicels 2.5-8 mm long, angular, thickened at apex; flowers closing before noon; bracts small, ca. 2 mm long, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate. Sepals 5, free, erect in flowers and spreading in fruits, slightly unequal, 8-10 mm x 3-4 mm, outer ones little shorter, oblong to narrowly elliptic- oblong, midvein excurrent into ca. 1 mm long mucro, glabrous or sparsely hairy or tuberculate on the back, persistent. Corolla 20-22 mm long and 15-17 mm across, funnelform, glabrous, pinkish to pale-purple with or without white markings; tube short; limb 5-lobed, lobes 7-8 mm x 2-3 mm, triangular, mucronate. Stamens 5, inserted at the base of corolla tube, unequal; anthers and filaments white, included; filaments 7.5-9 mm, densely hairy at base, sparsely covered with curved hairs in lower half; anthers ca. 1 mm long, ovoid, sagittate at base, dorsifixed. Disc cupulate. Carpels 2, syncarpous; ovary (2-) 4-locular, conical or globose, glabrous; style ca. 9 mm long, filiform; stigma capitate, 1 mm x 1.5 mm. Fruit a capsule, depressed globose with sharp point, 5-6 mm x 5-6 mm, glabrous, 4-celled, 4-valved. Seeds glabrous or with a few minute hairs, 4-seeded, 2.5-3 mm x ca. 2.5 mm, hard, shiny, chocolate brown.

Flowering and Fruiting: September to October
Common Names: Little Bell Morning Glory, Three-lobe Morning Glory, Pink Convolvulus, Aiea Morning Glory