Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Ipomoea triloba L.


Weed
Slender Vine
Click/tap on images to enlarge
Flower. © Barry Jago
Flower. © Barry Jago
Leaf, infructescence and fruits. © CSIRO
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Cotyledon stage, epigeal germination. © CSIRO
10th leaf stage. © CSIRO
Family

Linnaeus, C. von (1753) Species Plantarum 2: 161. Type: Habitat in America.

Common name

Littlebell

Stem

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

Leaves

Leaf blades thin, usually with two conspicuous basal lobes, leaf blades about 2-6 x 2-4.5 cm (middle lobe sometimes only 0.4-0.8 cm wide) petioles about 1-5 cm long. Underside of the leaf blade clothed in minute hairs. Lateral veins about 4-6 on each side of the midrib. Petioles produce a small amount of milky exudate.

Flowers

Sepals about 7 mm long, sparsely clothed in pale-coloured hairs. Corolla about 15 mm long. Pollen grains minutely spinulose.

Fruit

Fruits about 7-9 mm long, perianth lobes persistent at the base. Seeds glabrous, about 4 mm long. Cotyledons contorted, folded and rolled in a complex fashion. Radicle about 3 mm long.

Seedlings

Cotyledons deeply lobed at the apex and cordate at the base, about 13-30 x 16-35 mm, petioles about 5-18 mm long. First pair of true leaves cordate. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blade cordate, upper and lower surface glabrous. Petioles produce a small amount of milky exudate when cut or broken. Seed germination time 6 days.

Distribution and Ecology

An introduced species originally from tropical America, now a pantropic weed. naturalised in WA, NT, CYP, NEQ, CEQ and southwards as far as south-eastern Queensland. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 250 m. Usually grows in riparian situations in open forest areas but also found along roads in rain forest.

RFK Code
2674
Copyright © CSIRO 2020, all rights reserved.