Ipomoea obscura (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Ipomoea obscura (L.) Ker Gawl.

Protologue: Bot. Reg. 3: t. 239 (1817).

Family: Convolvulaceae

• Convolvulus obscurus L. (1762).

• Indonesia: ki papesan (Sundanese), injen-injenan, malingan (Javanese)
• Philippines: kuskusipa, bang-bangau (Iloko), panggi-panggi (Sulu)
• Thailand: tong wa (northern), sa uek (central)
• Vietnam: bìm mờ.

From tropical Africa, the Mascarene Islands to tropical Asia, throughout Malesia to northern Australia and Fiji.

In Indonesia, a paste of the leaves, together with those of Argyreia mollis Chois. and alcohol, is spread on open sores and pustules, to ripen them. The leaves are mucilaginous, with a pleasant smell, and are used crushed or dried and powdered for aphthae. In Nigeria and Kenya, the leaves are eaten as a vegetable.

• An annual, slender herb, stems twining or prostrate, 1-2 m long, glabrous or patently hairy, older parts lignescent.
• Leaves ovate, orbicular, to almost kidney-shaped, 2-10 cm × 2-9 cm, base cordate, apex attenuate, acuminate or mucronulate, margins entire or slightly undulate, petiole up to 9 cm long.
• Flowers in a 1-few-flowered cyme, peduncle 1-14 cm long, slender; pedicel 1-2 cm long, clavate and reflexed in fruit, sepals subequal, 3-4 mm long, ovate, often reflexed in fruit, corolla funnel-shaped, 2-2.5 cm long, white or pale yellow with darker midpetaline bands, centre dark purple, filaments unequal, hairy at the base, ovary glabrous.
• Capsule broadly ovoid, 7-8 mm long, mucronate, straw-coloured.
• Seeds 4, 4-4.5 mm long, black, finely grey-puberulent.

I. obscura occurs in grassland, thickets, hedges, thin forests, waste grounds, along roadsides, occasionally along sandy beaches, from sea-level up to 1300 m altitude.

• [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.
• [215] Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 1948—1976. The wealth of India: a dictionary of Indian raw materials & industrial products. 11 volumes. Publications and Information Directorate, New Delhi, India.
• [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.
• [1026] van Oostrom, S.J., 1940. The Convolvulaceae of Malaysia, III. Blumea 3(3): 481—582.

• Ipomoea (Medicinal plants)

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