Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Ipomoea littoralis Blume


Slender Vine
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Leaves and Flowers. © CSIRO
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Family

Blume, C. (1826) Bijdr. : 713. Type: Java?.

Common name

Coastal Morning Glory; Whiteflower Beach Morning Glory

Stem

A slender vine not exceeding a stem diameter of 2 cm.

Leaves

Leaf blades about 4-8 x 3.5-6 cm, petioles about 3.5-5 cm long.

Flowers

Sepals about 8 x 4 mm. Corolla about 40 mm long, centre much darker, reddish purple in colour. Stamens variable in length. Pollen minutely spinulose. Disk fleshy, shallowly cup-shaped, surrounding the base of the ovary.

Fruit

Fruits brown, depressed globular, about 5 x 6-10 mm. Calyx lobes persistent at the base. Each lobe about 7-8 x 4-5 mm. Seeds up to 4 per fruit. Seeds black, about 4 mm wide and shaped like a quarter of an orange.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in CYP, NEQ, CEQ and southwards as far as south-eastern Queensland. Altitudinal range not known but most collections were slightly above sea level. Usually grows in maritime situations and climbs over the vegetation in beach forest. Also occurs in Madagascar and other islands in the Indian Ocean, Asia, Malesia, the Pacific islands, Mexico and the West Indies.

Natural History & Notes

This species may have medicinal properties.

Synonyms
Calystegia affinis Endl., Prodromus Florae Norfolkicae : 51(1833), Type: Crescit in insula Norfolk. (Ferd. Bauer.). Convolvulus denticulatus (R.Br.) Spreng., Systema Vegetabilium 1 : 603(1824).
RFK Code
2678
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