Ipomoea tricolor Cav.
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Authority
Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.
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Family
Convolvulaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Grown with great success as an elegant, flowering vine in the drier parts of Porto Rico, spontaneous from seed, and occasionally seen on roadsides, this slender, twining vine is widely distributed in the West Indies, and in tropical continental America, largely through cultivation for ornament, the profuse, large, blue flowers beautiful and attractive; it is also commonly grown as an annual in gardens of the temperate zones, and has been confused by many authors with Ipomoea violacea Linnaeus. Granny-vine is another English name. The species is supposed to be Mexican in origin, but when first described by the Spanish botanist Cavanilles in 1794, he states that its original home was unknown to him. An account of the genus Ipomoea may be found with our description of Ipomoea polyanthes. Ipomoea tricolor (of three colors, referring to the corolla) is a slender vine becoming from 4 to 6 meters long, the stem roughened by short processes. The thin, long-stalked, ovate-orbicular leaves are from 3 to 12 centimeters broad, with continuous, or wavy margins and a heart-shaped base. The flowers are usually several together on a stout stalk from 2 to 8 centimeters long, the individual ones are on hollow stalks from 1.5 to 5 centimeters long; the oblong to lance-shaped blunt sepals are 6 or 7 millimeters long, with characteristically hyaline, scarious margins; the corolla has a bright blue limb, from 6 to 8 centimeters in diameter, fading to purple, a white tube, 3 or 4 centimeters long, and a yellowish throat. The ovoid-ellipsoid, pointed capsule is about 15 millimeters long, and finely nerved, the oblong seeds smooth.
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Discussion
Gloria de mañana Heavenly-blue Morning-glory Morning-glory Family Ipomoea tricolor Cavanilles, Icones et Descriptiones Plantarum 3: 5. 1794.