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Ipomoea cairica

Botanic Family

Convolvulaceae

Author

(Linnaeus) Sweet

Propagation

C.L.S.

Cultivated

C, ornamental with cultivars

Conservation Status

Least concern

Offspring

Ipomoea cairica 'Alba', Ipomoea cairica 'Red Eye'

Common Names

• Powhiwhi
• Railway Creeper
• Wu zhao jin long (Pinyin)
• Koali 'ai (Hawaiian)
• Koali (Hawaiian)
• Koali 'ai'ai (Hawaiian)
• Koali lau manamana (Hawaiian)
• Kowali (Hawaiian)
• Pa'ali'I (Hawaiian)
• Ivy Leaved Morning Glory
• Mboha-mboha (Kindande)
• Motongoshinitia
• Ntungashimina (Kinyaruanda)
• Mulula
• Muhulula Ya May Tshiraga (Bashi)
• Cairo Morning Glory
• Coastal Morning Glory
• Wasovivi (Fiji)

Geographical Habitats

• Angola
• Bangladesh
• Botswana
• Burundi
• Cameroon
• Hainan
• Taiwan - China
• Congo
• Equatorial Guinea
• Eritraea
• Ethiopia
• Gabon
• Gambia
• Ghana
• Guinea
• Guinea Bissau
• Gulf of Guinea Islands
• India
• Ivory Coast
• Ryukyu Islands - Japan
• Kenya
• Laos
• Liberia
• Madagascar
• Malawi
• Mauritius
• Mozambique
• Myanmar
• Nepal
• Nigeria
• Oman
• Palestine
• Reunion
• Rwanda
• Senegal
• Sierra Leone
• Somalia
• Cape Provinces
• Natal
• Northern Provinces - South Africa
• Sri Lanka
• Sudan
• Swaziland
• Tanzania
• Thailand
• Togo
• Uganda
• Vietnam
• Yemen
• Zaire
• Zambia
• Zimbabawe

Natural Habitats

• Coastal
• shrubland
• woodland
• riverside
• hedgerows
• gallery forest
• forest
• marshes

Flowering Times

• Jan-Sep (Bolivia)

Fruiting Times

Slender herbaceous tuberous perennial stem twiner or creeper with straw-coloured glabrous warty stems to 3m & tendrils. 5-7 palmate glabrous leaves, sometimes lobed, to 100mm x 100mm, mucronate lobes, glabrous leaflets to 50mm x 16mm with serrulate margins. Axillary corymbs or cymes or solitary flowers with minute bracts to 2mm, 80mm pink, purple or white flowers with a darker centre, 50mm long, coriaceous mucronulate sepals to 8mm x 5mm, red-purple, pink or white glabrous corolla to 70mm x 50mm with limb to 40mm diameter. Glabrous brown 4-valved capsule to 13mm diameter.

Can become a weed. Naturalised

Medicinal uses, famine food, animal fodder

Further References

• Menninger 1970
• Bailey 1976
• Herklots 1976
• Jones & Gray 1977
• Huxley 1992
• Nicholls 1995
• P & R 1997
• FOC
• FONZ
• FOH
• FCP
• Bodkin
• FB
• Nombot
• JDH
• The Plant List 2
• G. Don
• FA
• FS
• USNH
• Botanicus
• FOTA
• Flora Malesiana
• JAA
• Kew
• KB
• Merremia
• Wiart 2