Ipomoea triloba (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Ipomoea triloba L.

Protologue: Sp. pl. 1: 161 (1753).

Family: Convolvulaceae

Vernacular names

• Three-lobed morning glory (En)
• Malaysia: gegasing, kangkong bulu
• Philippines: aurora (Sp, Tagalog), bang-ba-ngao (Iloko), muti-muti (Cebu Bisaya)
• Thailand: yaa dok khon (north-eastern)
• Vietnam: bìm ba thùy.

Distribution

Native of tropical America, now a pantropical weed, also in Malesia.

Uses

The plant is used in Peninsular Malaysia in a poultice against headache.

Observations

• An annual herb, stems twining or sometimes prostrate, 1-3 m long, glabrous or sparsely hairy.
• Leaves broadly ovate to orbicular in outline, 2.5-8 cm × 2-7 cm, base cordate, basal lobes rounded or angular to lobed, apex rounded, margins coarsely dentate to more or less deeply 3-lobed, glabrous or sparsely pilose, petiole 3-10(-18) cm long, slender.
• Flowers solitary or in a few-flowered cyme, peduncle 1-10 cm long, bracts minute; pedicel 2.5-8 mm long, sepals slightly unequal, 7-8 mm long, narrowly oblong, margins fimbriate, corolla funnel-shaped, 18-20 mm long, pink or pale red-purple, sometimes with a darker centre, filaments hairy at base, ovary hairy.
• Capsule subglobular, 5-6 mm long, shortly mucronulate, bristly hairy.
• Seeds 4 or less, 3.5 mm long, glabrous.

I. triloba occurs in grassland, thickets, hedges, waste places, savanna forests, along roadsides, and occasionally on sandy beaches, from sea-level up to 750 m altitude. It can be found flowering throughout the year.

Selected sources

• [74] Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1964—1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1 (1964) 647 pp., Vol. 2 (1965) 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968) 761 pp.
• [134] Burkill, H.M., 1985—2000. The useful plants of West tropical Africa. 2nd Edition. 5 volumes. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. Vol. 1 (1985), Families A—D, 960 pp.; Vol. 2 (1994), Families E—I, 636 pp.; Vol. 3 (1995), Families J—L, 857 pp.; Vol. 4 (1997), Families M—R, 969 pp; Vol. 5 (2000), Families S—Z, 686 pp.
• [135] Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. Revised reprint. 2 volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Vol. 1 (A—H) pp. 1—1240, Vol. 2 (I—Z) pp. 1241—2444.
• [626] Liu, Q.C., Kokubu, T. & Sato, M., 1990. Plant regeneration in stem, petiole and leaf explant cultures of Ipomoea triloba L. Japanese Journal of Breeding 40(3): 321—328.
• [1026] van Oostrom, S.J., 1940. The Convolvulaceae of Malaysia, III. Blumea 3(3): 481—582.

Main genus page

• Ipomoea (Medicinal plants)

Authors

• Anna L.H. Dibiyantoro & G.H. Schmelzer