Convolvulus acanthocladus Boiss. & Kotschy, Diagn. Pl. Orient. 7: 27. 1846. (Boissier 1846: 27).

Wood, John R. I., Williams, Bethany R. M., Mitchell, Thomas C., Carine, Mark A., Harris, David J. & Scotland, Robert W., 2015, A foundation monograph of Convolvulus L. (Convolvulaceae), PhytoKeys 51, pp. 1-282 : 158

142. Convolvulus acanthocladus Boiss. & Kotschy, Diagn. Pl. Orient. 7: 27. 1846. (Boissier 1846: 27). Figure 19, t. 16-23

Type.

IRAN, Shiraz, Kotschy 352 (lectotype G, designated by Sa’ad 1967: 62; isolectotypes BM000047962, C, E!, FI, GOET, HAL, JE, K!, OXF!, P!, W!).

Description.

Intricately branched spiny undershrub, 10-60 cm high, stems woody, weakly divaricate and spreading at a wide angle, grey-sericeous, spine-tipped and with numerous short lateral spines on older shoots formed from old peduncles. Leaves sessile, 0.5-1.5 × 0.2-0.4 cm, oblong-elliptic, oblanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, margin entire, attenuate at the base, grey-sericeous. Inflorescence of few-flowered terminal clusters, sometimes also with solitary flowers in the leaf axils below; peduncles 3-8 mm, rigid, spinescent, sericeous; bracteoles 4-6 × 0.5-1.5 mm, linear, acute; pedicels 1-3 mm, villous, sometimes recurved; outer sepals 7-10 × 2-3 mm, ovate, abruptly narrowed into an acuminate and mucronate apex, densely pilose with long, pinkish hairs, inner sepals narrower and with scarious margins; corolla 1.5-2.6 cm, pink or white, very shallowly lobed, the midpetaline bands with long hairs; ovary and style pilose; style divided 6-7 mm above base, the stigmas relatively short, c. 2 mm long; capsule pilose at apex, one-seeded; seeds puberulous. [ Sa’ad 1967: 62; Rechinger 1963: 8; Nowroozi 2002: 22, 25 (plate), 100 (map); Austin and Ghazanfar 1979: 10; Jongbloed 2003: 309 (photo)]

Distribution.

Pakistan (fide Austin and Ghazanfar 1979); Iran (Parris 75.260; Léonard 5877, Rechinger 3226, Remaudière 1959, Soltani 6397B, Alava & Bokhari 10755, Wendelbo & Foroughi 15771), U.A.E., Oman (Radcliffe-Smith 4110, Mandaville 6784).

Notes.

The spiny sericeous habit, spinescent peduncles and sepals with very long hairs make this distinct from all but Convolvulus iranicus . However both corolla and sepal length is quite variable.