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camote, sweet potato, wild sweet potato

Habit Perennials, root relatively large, tuberlike.
Stems

± trailing, rarely twining.

Leaf

blades cordate, broadly ovate, or 5–7-lobed, 50–100+ × 40–100 mm overall, base cordate, surfaces glabrous or hairy.

Peduncles

glabrous or hairy, hairs appressed.

Flowers

sepals lanceolate to oblong, 8–15 mm, chartaceous;

corolla usually lavender, pink, or purplish, sometimes white, throat usually darker inside, funnelform, (30–)40–70 mm.

Seeds

glabrous.

2n

= 60, 84, 90.

Ipomoea batatas

Phenology Flowering year-round.
Habitat Abandoned plantings, thickets.
Elevation 0–200+ m. (0–700+ ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
FL; KS; LA; MS; NC; NY; PA; SC; TX; UT; VA; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies [Introduced in North America; introduced also in Asia, Africa]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Reports of Ipomoea batatas from northern parts of the flora area appear to be based on ephemerals.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 14.
Parent taxa Convolvulaceae > Ipomoea
Sibling taxa
I. alba, I. amnicola, I. aquatica, I. asarifolia, I. barbatisepala, I. cairica, I. capillacea, I. cardiophylla, I. carnea, I. coccinea, I. cordatotriloba, I. costellata, I. cristulata, I. dumetorum, I. hederacea, I. hederifolia, I. imperati, I. indica, I. lacunosa, I. leptophylla, I. lindheimeri, I. longifolia, I. macrorhiza, I. microdactyla, I. muricata, I. nil, I. pandurata, I. pes-caprae, I. plummerae, I. pubescens, I. purpurea, I. quamoclit, I. rupicola, I. sagittata, I. setosa, I. shumardiana, I. sloteri, I. tenuiloba, I. tenuissima, I. ternifolia, I. thurberi, I. tricolor, I. triloba, I. violacea, I. wrightii, I. ×leucantha
Synonyms Convolvulus batatas
Name authority (Linnaeus) Lamarck in J. Lamarck and J. Poiret: Tabl. Encycl. 1: 465. (1793)
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