Ipomoea tiliacea (Willd.) Choisy

• Title

  Ipomoea tiliacea (Willd.) Choisy

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Ipomoea tiliacea (Willd.) Choisy

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Ipomoea tiliacea Bejuco de puerco Common Morning-glory Family Convolvulaceae Morning-glory Family Convolvulus tiliaceus Willdenow, Enumeratio Plantarum Horti Regii Berolinensis 1: 202. 1809. Convolvulus fastigiatus Roxburgh, Hortus Bengalensis 13. 1814. Ipomoea fastigiata Sweet, Hortus Britannicus 288. 1826. Ipomoea tiliacea Choisy, in De Candolle, Prodromus 9: 375. 1845. The widely cultivated, very important food plant Sweet Potato, or Batata is understood to be a derivative from this wild, tropical American vine, through aboriginal cultivation and selection. The plants closely resemble each other in foliage, flowers and fruit, but this wild plant is twining, while the Sweet Potato, (Ipomoea Batatas), which occasionally runs wild, is prostrate. This species grows throughout tropical America, ranging north into Florida; it is common on banks and in thickets at lower elevations in Porto Rico, and has been observed on the islands Vieques and Culebra. The same Spanish popular name is used for this plant and for Ipomoea rubra. For an account of the genus we refer to our description of Ipomoea polyanthes. Ipomoea tiliacea (from fancied resemblance of its leaves to those of linden-trees, genus Tilia) is a perennial, smooth or slightly hairy, slender, twining, herbaceous vine, which may become 2 meters long, or longer; small tubers are sometimes formed on the roots. The ovate, thin, pointed, stalked, heart-shaped leaves are from 5 to 8 centimeters long; the flowers are few, or several together in stalked, axillary clusters, the stalks of the individual ones short; the oblong, unequal sepals are tipped, the larger ones about 8 millimeters long; the purple, pink, or nearly white corolla, sometimes with a dark eye, is 5 or 6 centimeters long. The 2- celled, nearly globular capsule is 8 or 10 millimeters in diameter, the seeds smooth.