Purple Morning Glory

Gunn (Brittonia 24: 150-168. 1972) discussed the nomenclature of Ipomoea turbinata, which was treated in Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. as Calonyction muricatum, presented evidence refuting the generic status for Calonyction, and recognized the latter as a section of Ipomoea.

Gunn reported that the young seeds, fruits, and thickened pedicels of Ipomoea turbinata are eaten as a vegetable in China and Sri Lanka, and the species is cultivated in India for its edible pedicels or as an ornamental for its nocturnal flowers. In China, the leaves are used in treating stomachaches and the seeds for treating trauma.

Herbs annual, twining; axial parts often tuberculate, glabrous or nearly so; sap milky. Stems 2-10 m. Petiole 4-12 cm; leaf blade cordate, 7-18 X 6.5-15 cm, base cordate, margin entire, apex acute or caudate-acuminate. Inflorescences 1- to few flowered; peduncle 3-6 cm; bracts oblong, ca. 8 mm, scarious. Pedicel 1-2 cm, thicker apically, much thickened in fruit. Flowers nocturnal. Sepals oblong to ovate, ± equal, fleshy, glabrous, distinctly enlarged in fruit and eventually reflexed; outer 2 sepals 6-8 mm, apex attenuate into a thick, suberect awn ca. 4 mm; inner 3 sepals 7-8 mm, apex obtuse or emarginate, awn shorter. Corolla pale purple, salverform, 5-7.5 cm; tube 3-6 cm, flaring apically; limb funnelform to rotate, 3-5 cm in diam., shallowly 5-lobed. Stamens slightly exserted or not; filaments inserted in apical part of corolla tube, base sparsely short pubescent; anthers large, base cordate. Pistil slightly exserted or not; ovary glabrous. Stigma 2-lobed. Capsule ovoid, 1.8-2 cm, mucronate. Seeds black, trigonous, 9-10 mm, glabrous. 2n = 30.

Cultivated in Henan, Hubei, Hunan, escaped in S Yunnan [India, Indonesia, Japan, Kashmir, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Vietnam; Africa, North America, South America]

Thought to be a native of the New World tropies, now pantropical.

910-1400 m

Thickets, floodlands; 600-1200 m.

Calonyction longiflorum Hasskarl; C. muricatum (Lin-naeus) G. Don; C. speciosum Choisy var. muricatum (Lin-naeus) Choisy; Convolvulus colubrinus Blanco; C. muricatus Linnaeus; Ipomoea bonanox Linnaeus var. purpurascens Ker Gawler; I. muricata (Linnaeus) Jacquin.