Convolvulus siculus L., Sp. Pl. 1: 156. 1753. (Linnaeus 1753: 156).

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 : 117

87. Convolvulus siculus L., Sp. Pl. 1: 156. 1753. (Linnaeus 1753: 156).

Type.

ITALY, Sicily (lectotype LINN 218.40!, designated by Verdcourt 1963: 41).

Description.

Annual herb, commonly branched at base with prostrate to erect stems to 40 cm long, thinly pilose with brownish hairs on vegetative parts. Leaves petiolate, 1-5 × 0.4-2 cm, ovate-deltoid, acute, base cuneate to abruptly truncate, margin entire; petioles 2-5 (-11) mm. Flowers 1-3 (-4); peduncles 0.6-2.5 cm, bracteoles 2-11 × 1 mm, filiform, linear or linear-lanceolate; pedicels 0-10 mm, becoming recurved in fruit; outer sepals 5-6 × 1.5-3 mm, lanceolate, ovate to subrhomboid, acute; corolla 5-7 mm long, white or lilac, deeply lobed for c. 2 mm, midpetaline bands glabrous; filaments glandular below; ovary glabrous; style glabrous, divided c. 2 mm above base, stigmas 2 mm. Capsule glabrous; seeds glabrous, tuberculate. [ Sa’ad 1967: 197; Feinbrun-Dothan 1978 plate 62); Collenette 1999: 232 (photo); Silvestre 2012: 259, 261 (plate); Pignatti 1982: 388; Tohmé and Tohmé 2007: 216; Strid and Strid 2009: 394-395 (plate)]

Notes.

We recognise two subspecies, which intergrade occasionally (e.g. Ascherson 1054 from the Libyan desert in Egypt, Finlay s.n. from Madeira).