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IPOMOEA ficifolia Lindl. [family CONVOLVULACEAE]

Date Updated: 19 August 2007

Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, page 1, (1963) Author: B. VERDCOURT (East African Herbarium)
Names
IPOMOEA ficifolia Lindl. [family CONVOLVULACEAE], in Bot. Reg. 26, Misc. Not. : 90 (1840) and 27, t. 13 (1841); Meeuse in Bothalia 6 : 738 (1958). Type : a plant cultivated in the Victoria Nursery, Bath, Somerset, Nov. 1840 (CGE, holo.!) Convolvulus trilobus Thunb. [family CONVOLVULACEAE], Prodr. Fl. Cap. : 35 (1794), non Desr. (1792). Type : South Africa, ? Humansdorp, Thunberg (U, holo.) Ipomoea engleriana Dammer [family CONVOLVULACEAE], in P.O.A. C : 333 (1895). Type : Tanganyika, W. Usambara Mts., “ Kwa Mschuza ”, Holst 8721 (B, holo. †, HBG, K, iso.!) [Dammer gives a different locality] Ipomoea ficifolia Hall.f. var. laxiflora [family CONVOLVULACEAE], in Sitz. Akad. Wiss. Wien. 107 : 48 (1898); Bak. & Rendle in F.T.A. 4 (2) : 161 (1905); T.T.C.L. : 170 (1949). Type : as I. engleriana. Ipomoea ficifolia Hall.f. subvar. auriculata [family CONVOLVULACEAE], in Ann. Ist. Bot. Roma 7 : 230 (1898). Type : Somali Republic (S.), Dadacci Uteci, Riva 1208 (FI, holo.)
Information
Perennial; stems prostrate or twining, densely bristly pubescent. Leaves ovate, 6.5–17 cm. long, 5–18 cm. wide, acute or acuminate at the apex, cordate at the base, entire or 3-lobed, with the mid-lobe elliptic, thin, green, but adpressedly pilose above, with dense to very sparse and almost nonexistent traces of white-cottony tomentum beneath; veins yellow-bristly beneath; petiole 6–25 cm. long. Flowers few to many, in lax, rarely rather dense, cymes, very rarely solitary; peduncle up to 23 cm. long; secondary branches up to 9 cm., often forked several times; bracts deltoid, 5 mm. long, 2.5 mm. wide. Sepals linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, 6–18 mm. long, 2–3 mm. wide, pilose with yellow-bristly hairs; margins glandular. Corolla pink or mauve, broadly funnel-shaped; tube narrow below, (2.5–)4.5–5.3 cm. long. Capsule ovoid, 6–9 mm. long, glabrous or pubescent. Seeds compressed-globose, 3.5 mm. long, yellow-pubescent, also with a small tuft of white hairs 7–8 mm. long.
Range
DISTR. K1, 4, 7; T2, 3, 5, 6; Z
Altitude range
390–1500 m.
Distribution
KENYA Kitui District N. Kitui, near Mwingi, 3 May 1960, Napper 1538 ! ;KENYA Kilifi District Mfimboni beach, 12 Oct. 1945, Jeffery 352 ! & Kilifi, 25 June 1956, Irwin 277!TANGANYIKA Tanga District Lower Sigi Valley, near Kisiwani, 30 June 1950, Verdcourt 233 ! (solitary-flowered variety) ;TANGANYIKA Mpwapwa District Kongwa, 19 Apr. 1950, Anderson 674 ! ;TANGANYIKA Morogoro District 14.5 km. E. of Kingolwira, 29 July 1953, Welch 199 !ZANZIBAR Zanzibar I. , Uwemba, 25 Sept. 1932, Vaughan 1972 !
Distribution (external)
; Mozambique South Africa; also Somali Republic (S.) ; also Somali Republic (S.)
Notes
The type of I. ficifolia has a lax inflorescence and only traces of cottony tomentum below on the leaves. The form distinguished by Hallier has very lax inflorescences and a dense tomentum but every intermediate exists, particularly in South Africa.
IPOMOEA ficifolia Lindl. [family CONVOLVULACEAE]
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