Ipomoea albidiflora

Interesting Facts

Description

Family Convolvulaceae

Herbs or shrubs , usually with twining or climbing stems or erect , often with milky juice. Leaves alternate, simple , entire, dissected , or compound , absent in parasitic species. Flowers solitary, axillary or in cymes, racemes , panicles, umbels, or capitula, bisexual , actinomorphic , usually 5-merous, often showy. Sepals free , often persistent , sometimes enlarged in fruit. Corolla sympetalous , funnelform , campanulate , salverform , or urceolate ; limb subentire or deeply lobed . Stamens alternating with corolla lobes , adnate to corolla; filaments filiform , equal or unequal in length ; anthers introrse , laterally and longitudinally dehiscing; pollen smooth or finely spiny . Disc ringlike or cupular. Ovary superior, mostly 2-carpellate, 1- or 2-loculed, rarely 3- or 4-loculed; ovules basal, erect. Styles 1 or 2, terminal (gynobasic in Dichondra) or very short or absent; stigma entire or 2- (or 3) -lobed, rarely peltate. Fruit a capsule, dehiscing by valves , circumscissile, or irregularly shattering, less often a berry or nutlike. Seeds usually trigonous , smooth or pubescent .

About 58 genera and 1650 species: widely distributed in tropical , subtropical , and temperate regions ; 20 genera and 129 species in China.

Aniseia biflora (Linnaeus) Choisy and A. stenantha (Dunn) Ling, recognized in the Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin., are here treated as Ipomoea biflora and I. fimbriosepala, respectively, because both have pantoporate and spinulose pollen. Strictly speaking, Aniseia is a neotropical genus of about five species, of which A. martinicensis (Jacquin) Choisy is widely naturalized as a common weed in rice paddies in Thailand and other southeast Asian countries. It will probably be found in S China eventually.

The family is important in China for food plants (Ipomoea batatas (Linnaeus) Lamarck and I. aquatica Forsskål), several ornamentals (Ipomoea), several medicinal plants (Erycibe, Ipomoea, Cuscuta, Merremia, Dichondra, Evolvulus), and numerous noxious weeds (Cuscuta, Calystegia, Convolvulus) .

Pollen aperture type and surface ornamentation are important characters in the classification of Convolvulaceae at the generic level and above. The most critical feature of the pollen is whether the grain surface is spiny or not. This distinction separates the eight tribes recognized by Austin (Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 60: 306-412. 1973) into two rather cohesive groups. A low magnification (20 ) is adequate for discerning the presence or absence of minute spines on the surface.

For the successful identification of Convolvulaceae, both flowering and fruiting material should be collected. The first key to genera requires adequate fertile material with both flowers and fruit, and requires use of a pollen character. The second key may be used as an aid to identification where material is lacking flowers or fruit, but in some instances it is still partially dependent upon having both flowers and fruit.[1]

Genus Ipomoea

Herbs or shrubs , often twining , sometimes prostrate , erect , or floating. Leaves petiolate , entire, lobed , or divided . Inflorescences mostly axillary , cymose , 1- to many flowered, rarely paniculate ; bracts various. Flowers small to large. Sepals persistent , equal to unequal, ± enlarged in fruit. Corolla variously colored , rarely yellow, funnelform , campanulate , or salverform ; limb 5-lobed to entire, midpetaline bands well defined. Stamens included or exserted; filaments filiform , usually unequal, dilated and pubescent basally; anthers ovate or linear , longitudinally dehiscent , not twisted; pollen globular , pantoporate , finely spiny . Disc ringlike. Ovary 2-4-loculed, 4- or 6-ovuled. Style 1, filiform, included or exserted; stigma capitate, or 2- or 3-globulose. Capsule globose or ovoid , 4- or 6-valved. Seeds 4(-6) or fewer, glabrous or pubescent.

Approximately 500 species: widely distributed in tropical to warm temperate regions , especially of North and South America; 29 species in China.[2]

Taxonomy

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Domain: Eukaryota () - Whittaker & Margulis,1978 - eukaryotes
- Kingdom: Plantae () - Haeckel, 1866 - Plants
  - Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae () - Cavalier-Smith, 1981
    - Phylum: Tracheophyta () - Sinnott, 1935 ex Cavalier-Smith, 1998 - Vascular Plants
      - Subphylum: Euphyllophytina ()
        Infraphylum: Radiatopses () - Kenrick & Crane, 1997
        Class: Spermatopsida () - Brongniart, 1843
        Subclass: Asteridae () - Takhtajan, 1967
        Superorder: Solananae () - R. Dahlgren Ex Reveal, 1992
        Order: Solanales () - Dumortier, 1829
        Family: Convolvulaceae () - A.L. de Jussieu, 1789 - gloires du matin, morning glories
        Tribe: Ipomoeeae ()
        Genus: Ipomoea () - C. Linnaeus, 1753 - Morning-glory
        Specific epithet: albidiflora - Matuda
        Botanical name: - Ipomoea albidiflora Matuda

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Ipomoea

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 322 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

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Notes

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Contributors

Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-present. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Zwaag, The Netherlands. Accessed January 10, 2012.

Identifiers

Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 8845408
Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 15387833
Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:268368-1
International Plant Names Index (IPNI) ID: 129129-2
Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 3349142

Footnotes

Ruizheng Fang & George Staples "Convolvulaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 16 Page 271. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Clifton E. Nauman "Ipomoea". in Flora of China Vol. 16 Page 301. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

Ipomoea albidiflora

Interesting Facts

Description

Family Convolvulaceae

Genus Ipomoea

Taxonomy

Similar Species

Members of the genus Ipomoea

More Info

Further Reading

Notes

Contributors

Identifiers

Footnotes