Ipomoea congesta (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Ipomoea congesta R.Br.

Protologue: Prodr.: 485 (1810).

Family: Convolvulaceae

Synonyms

• Ipomoea amoena Blume (1825),
• Ipomoea acuminata Roem. & Schult. var. burckii Boerl. (1899),
• Ipomoea indica (Burm.f.) Merr. (1917).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: bubgah (Sumatra), pitur (Manado), apukung’a (Talaud)
• Papua New Guinea: esipota (Sasembata, Northern Province), korokoro (Buin, North Solomons Province)
• Vietnam: bìm tím.

Distribution

Circumtropical, throughout Malesia, but not yet collected in Borneo.

Uses

On Bougainville Island (Papua New Guinea), Fiji and in India, the sap from the crushed leaves is drunk to relieve dysentery and placed on sores, which are then wrapped with the leaf. In Ambon, the leaves are used as soap to wash clothes. The plant is occasionally cultivated for ornamental purposes.

Observations

• A herbaceous annual herb, stems twining or sometimes prostrate, and then sometimes rooting at the nodes, more or less densely retrorsely pilose.
• Leaves broadly ovate to orbicular in outline, entire or 3-lobed, 5-17 cm × 3.5-16 cm, base cordate, apex shortly or long-acuminate, petiole 2-18 cm long.
• Umbellate cyme few-flowered, dense, peduncle (0.5-)4-20 cm long, bracts linear to filiform.
• Pedicel 2-5(-8) mm long, sepals equal, 14-22 mm long, hairy or glabrous, corolla funnel-shaped, 5-8 cm long, bright blue or bluish-purple, afterwards more reddish-purple or red, the tube much paler to whitish, filaments hairy at base, ovary glabrous.
• Capsule not seen in Malesian specimens.

I. congesta occurs in waste places, thickets, forest borders, occasionally on sandy sea-shores, up to 1650 m altitude.

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.
• [407] Heyne, K., 1950. De nuttige planten van Indonesië [The useful plants of Indonesia]. 3rd Edition. 2 volumes. W. van Hoeve, 's-Gravenhage, the Netherlands/Bandung, Indonesia. 1660 + CCXLI pp.
• [418] Holdsworth, D.K., 1977. Medicinal plants of Papua New Guinea. Technical Paper No 175. South Pacific Commission, Noumea, New Caledonia. 123 pp.
• [696] Morton, J.F., 1981. Atlas of medicinal plants of Middle America. Bahamas to Yucatan. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, United States. 1420 pp.
• [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