Ipomoea marginata (Desrousseaux) Verdcourt

Ipomoea marginata has often been misidentified as I. maxima (Linnaeus f.) Sweet.

Herbs perennial, with a stout root and spreading hirsute or glabrous axial parts. Stems twining or prostrate, 1-3 m. Petiole 1-3 cm, sometimes minutely tuberculate; leaf blade often purple or purple spotted, elliptic-ovate or reniform to circular, apical leaves sometimes sagittate or hastate, 2-6 X 2-5 cm, glabrous, ciliolate marginally, base deeply cordate or hastate, margin entire or minutely undulate, apex attenuate or ± abruptly acuminate. Inflorescences few to several flowered; peduncle 2-8 cm, thick, often applanate, verruculose distally; bracts persistent, ovate or oblong, ca. 2 mm. Pedicel 5-6 mm, sparsely verruculose. Sepals ovate or elliptic-oblong, equal or inner 3 longer, 4-7 mm, glabrous, apex obtuse; outer 2 verruculose, margin thinner. Corolla white or purple, with a darker center, ± salverform, 2.5-4 cm; lobes 5, apiculate. Stamens included. Pistil included; ovary glabrous. Stigma 2-lobed. Capsule depressed-globose, 6-7 mm, glabrous. Seeds pale grayish white tomentellous, margin often with longer cobwebby hairs.

Coastal or saline soils, thickets, grasslands, fields and waste areas. Hainan, Taiwan [India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Guinea, ?Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Africa, N Australia, Pacific Islands]

Convolvulus marginatus Desrousseaux in Lamarck, Encycl. Meth. 3: 558. 1792; C. verrucosus (Blume) D. Dietrich; Ipomoea sepiaria Koenig ex Roxburgh; I. subtrilobans Miquel; I. verrucosa Blume.