Ipomoea triloba L.

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

• Family

  Convolvulaceae

• Scientific Name

  Ipomoea triloba L.

• Description

  Species Description - This relatively small-flowered Morning-glory vine is frequent in thickets, and in waste and cultivated grounds at lower elevations in Porto Rico, sometimes becoming a weed, and has been observed also on the islands Mona and Vieques. It is distributed nearly all over tropical America, ranging north to Florida and to Arizona, and is naturalized in parts of the Old World tropics; we regard the plant as indigenous in Porto Rico. An account of the genus Ipomoea may be had by reference to our description of Ipomoea polyanthes. Ipomoea triloba (referring to 3-lobed leaves, but the name is not definitive) is an herbaceous, hairy, or nearly smooth, slender, usually trailing vine, about a meter long, or shorter, its slender-stalked leaves are ovate in outline, usually very deeply 3-lobed, or 5-lobed, but sometimes unlobed, from 2 to 10 centimeters long, the apex pointed, the base heart-shaped. The flowers are few together, or solitary, on a slender stalk, the individual ones on stalks 1 or 2 centimeters long, which thicken in fruit; the oblong, hairy sepals are 5 or 6 millimeters long, the purple, or red corolla about 15 millimeters broad. The nearly globular, hairy, 2-celled capsule is about 7 millimeters in diameter, the seeds smooth.

• Discussion

  Bejuquillo de puerco Small Purple Morning-glory Morning-glory Family Ipomoea triloba Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 161. 1753. Ipomoea parviflora Vahl, Symbolae Botanicae 3: 34. 1794.