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Ipomoea dichroa [family CONVOLVULACEAE]

Herbarium
South African National Biodiversity Institute, Compton Herbarium, Cape Town (SAM)
Collection
Flora of Southern Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of South Africa, (2003) Author: Dr J.P. Roux
Names
Ipomoea dichroa [family CONVOLVULACEAE]
Common names
I. arachnosperma Welw.: 588 (1859); A.Meeuse: t. 1203 (1956b); A.Meeuse: 736 (1957a); Verde: 112 (1963a); Roessler: 13 (1967a); Retief & P.P.J.Herman: 383 (1997). Type: Angola, Luanda, Wehvitsch 6243 (BM, COI, iso.).
Information
Annual. Stems several from base, stout and firm, usually twining, up to 2.5 m long, bristly yellowish hairy like petioles, peduncles, pedieels, bracteoles and sepals. Leaves broadly cor­date-ovate in outline, up to 130 mm wide, usu­ally digitately 3-lobed to ± the middle, green and thinly hairy above, densely silvery white cobwebby tomentose beneath except on veins; central lobe ovate to suborbicular, narrowed to base, lateral lobes oblique; basal sinus acumi­nate, apex acute or acuminate, margin entire, ciliate; petiole up to 70 mm long. Inflorescence a 3-11-flowered cyme; peduncle 30-60 mm long; bracteoles ovate-lanceolate, 9-12 mm long; pedicels up to 10 mm long. Sepals sub-equal, lanceolate, 10-13 mm long, enlarged in fruit. Corolla funnel-shaped, pink or mauve with darker mauve centre, 14-20 mm long and wide, pubescent on midpetaline areas near tips of corolla lobes, otherwise glabrous. Capsule ovoid, subglabrous, ± 8 mm wide. Seeds ovoid, ± 4 mm long,
Habitat
Ipomoea dichroa can be distinguished by its albotomentose lower leaf surface with promi­nent, glabrous main veins and bristly, yellowish hairs on the sepals. Some researchers regard it as perhaps no more than a small-flowered form of /. ficifolia (no. 21) from which it does not seem to differ ecologically or geographically.
Use
19. Ipomoea dichroa Choisy in A.DC, Prodromus systematis naturalis ... 9: 364 (1845); Verde: 165 (1978); Gone.: 84 (1987); Gone.: 91 (1992); Lejoly & Lisowski: 50 (1992); Gone.: 23 (1996); A.Meeuse & W.G.Welman: 48 (1996). Type: Senegal, Geoffroy s.n. (P, holo.).
Range
Occurs throughout most of tropical Africa and India. Extends into Namibia and Botswana, southeastwards to Swaziland. Grows in riverine forest, thickets, secondary savanna, grassland and clearings, sometimes weedy along road­sides and on cultivated land, often on sandy soil. Map 49.
Ipomoea dichroa [family CONVOLVULACEAE]
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