Ipomoea carnea Jacq.

Wood, John R. I., Munoz-Rodriguez, Pablo, Williams, Bethany R. M. & Scotland, Robert W., 2020, A foundation monograph of Ipomoea (Convolvulaceae) in the New World, PhytoKeys 143, pp. 1-823 : 1

84. Ipomoea carnea Jacq. , Enum. Syst. Plants 13. 1760. (Jacquin 1760: 13)

Type.

Icon, Jacquin, Stirp. Amer. Hort. Pl. t. 18 (1763), lectotype designated by Austin (1977: 237; possible type specimen BM000953169).

Description.

Erect ( subsp. fistulosa ) or climbing ( subsp. carnea ) undershrub to 4 m, often growing in clumps, stems stout, hollow, canescent when young, becoming glabrous. Leaves petiolate, 8-20(-30) × 3-10(-12)cm, ovate or elongate-ovate-deltoid, base cordate to subtruncate with rounded auricles, apex acuminate to long-acuminate, both surfaces grey-canescent when young, glabrescent, veins prominent abaxially; petioles 3-8 cm. Inflorescence of long-pedunculate axillary, somewhat compact cymes; peduncles 2-12 cm; bracteoles 3-4 mm, ovate or elliptic, caducous; secondary peduncles 3-7 mm; pedicels 5-15 mm, puberulent; sepals subequal, 5-6 × 7-8 mm, ovate to suborbicular, rounded, tomentellous, margins scarious; corolla 6-7 cm long, funnel-shaped, pink, tomentellous in bud, ± glabrescent, limb 4.5-5 cm diam., shallowly lobed. Capsules 18 × 10 mm, ellipsoid, glabrous; seeds 10-11 × 3-4 mm, woolly with very long hairs on the angles.

Variation.

Two distinct subspecies are generally recognised, sometimes as distinct species. The type subspecies is a twining liana with ovate, cordate, shortly acuminate leaves, whereas subsp. fistulosa is an erect, commonly cultivated subshrub, in which the ovate cordate leaves are long-acuminate. Occasional intermediate occurs, such as J. Schunke & G. Edwin 3718 (BM, F) from Cajamarca in Peru, which combines the leaf shape of subsp. carnea with the habit of subsp. fistulosa .