Ipomoea tricolor (Introduced)

Ipomoea tricolor Cav., Icon. 3(1): 5, pl. 208 1794. (syn: Convolvulus pauciflorus Willd. ex Roem. & Schult.; Convolvulus rubrocoeruleus (Hook.) D. Dietr.; Convolvulus schiedeanus D. Dietr.; Convolvulus venustus Spreng.; Ipomoea hookeri G. Don; Ipomoea rubro-caerulea Hook.; Ipomoea schiedeana Ham.; Pharbitis rubro-caerulea (Hook.) Planch.; Pharbitis tricolor (Cav.) Chittenden);

Argentina (Buenos Aires, Salta), Colombia (Valle), Bolivia (La Paz, Santa Cruz), Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico (Aguascalientes, Campeche, Chiapas, Ciudad de Mexico, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Mexico State, Michoacan, Morelos, Oaxaca, Puebla, Queretaro, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosi, Sinaloa, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Yucatan, Zacatecas), Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela (Aragua, Distrito Federal, Guarico, Lara, Merida), Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Virgin Isl. (St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas), Lesser Antilles (Antigua, Guadeloupe, Saba, St. Martin), China (I), tropical Africa (I), Ethiopia (I), Zambia (I), Zimbabwe (I), Malawi (I), Mozambique (I), Chad (I), Madagascar (I), peninsular Malaysia (I), Bangladesh (I), Vietnam (I), India (I), USA (I) (Arizona (I), Florida (I), Massachusetts (I), Pennsylvania (I), Texas (I)), Uzbekistan (I) as per Catalogue of Life;

Climbers with glabrous twining stems. Leaves alternate, 3-7 x 2-6 cm, ovate, acuminate apically, cordate basally. Flowers in axillary cymes, 3-9 cm long. Sepals ovate-lanceolate, 4-6 mm long. Corolla blue to violet, the tube white, 4-6 cm long, funnelform. Fruit capsular, ovoid, 8-10 mm long, mucronate because of the persisting style base; seeds 4-5 mm long, black, minutely pubescent.

Flowering and fruiting: October-February

Along roadsides and scrub jungles

Native of tropical America

(Attributions- Dr. N Sasidharan (Dr. B P Pal Fellow), Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi as per India Biodiversity Portal)