FNA: Ipomoea nil vs. Ipomoea aquatica

	Ipomoea nil	Ipomoea aquatica
	ivy morning glory, Japanese morning glory, whiteedge morning-glory	swamp morning-glory, water-spinach
Habit	Annuals.	Perennials.
Stems	twining.	usually repent, rooting at nodes, sometimes floating, rarely twining.
Leaf	blades cordate, ± orbiculate, ovate, or 3-lobed, 50–150 × 20–140 mm overall, base cordate, surfaces sparsely hirsute to sericeous.	blades ± hastate to lanceolate, 40–120 × 20–60 mm, base ± cordate or hastate to truncate, terminal lobe broadly to narrowly triangular or lanceolate, surfaces glabrescent.
Peduncles	hairy, hairs retrorse.	glabrous.
Flowers	sepals lance-linear, 15–25(–30) mm, herbaceous, proximally narrowly ovate, densely hispid, gradually narrowed to ± straight, hispid to strigose or glabrate distal portion longer than ovate base; corolla usually blue to purplish, sometimes red or white, tube white or yellow inside, funnelform, (20–)30–60+ mm.	sepals elliptic-ovate to oblong-ovate, 6–8 mm, chartaceous or coriaceous, apex acute or obtuse, mucronulate; corolla usually purple, rarely white, funnelform, 40–50 mm.
2n	= 30.	= 30.

	Ipomoea nil	Ipomoea aquatica
Phenology	Flowering Jul–Dec.	Flowering year-round.
Habitat	Abandoned plantings, fields, thickets.	Abandoned plantings, wet sites.
Elevation	10–2200 m. (0–7200 ft.)	0–100 m. (0–300 ft.)
Distribution	AL; KY; LA; MD; MS; NC; OK; SC; TN; TX; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies [Introduced in North America; introduced also in Asia] [WildflowerSearch map] [BONAP county map]	CA; FL; Mexico; Central America; South America; Asia; Africa; Australia [Introduced in North America] [BONAP county map]
Discussion	Reports of Ipomoea nil from California are based on misidentified material of I. hederacea. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source	FNA vol. 14.	FNA vol. 14.
Parent taxa	Convolvulaceae > Ipomoea	Convolvulaceae > Ipomoea
Sibling taxa	I. alba, I. amnicola, I. aquatica, I. asarifolia, I. barbatisepala, I. batatas, 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. 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	I. alba, I. amnicola, I. asarifolia, I. barbatisepala, I. batatas, 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 nil, Pharbitis hederacea, P. nil
Name authority	(Linnaeus) Roth: Catal. Bot. 1: 36. (1797)	Forsskål: Fl. Aegypt.-Arab., 44. (1775)
Web links	Local Web sites: LA Plants, MD Biodiversity WildflowerSearch iNaturalist (observations) USDA Plants Database LBJ Wildflower Center SEINet Plants of the World Online Encyclopedia of Life Wikipedia Google Image Search	Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos WildflowerSearch iNaturalist (observations) USDA Plants Database LBJ Wildflower Center SEINet Plants of the World Online Encyclopedia of Life Wikipedia Google Image Search

Ipomoea nil

Ipomoea aquatica

ivy morning glory, Japanese morning glory, whiteedge morning-glory

swamp morning-glory, water-spinach

Habit

Annuals.

Perennials.

Stems

twining.

usually repent, rooting at nodes, sometimes floating, rarely twining.

Leaf

blades cordate, ± orbiculate, ovate, or 3-lobed, 50–150 × 20–140 mm overall, base cordate, surfaces sparsely hirsute to sericeous.

blades ± hastate to lanceolate, 40–120 × 20–60 mm, base ± cordate or hastate to truncate, terminal lobe broadly to narrowly triangular or lanceolate, surfaces glabrescent.

Peduncles

hairy, hairs retrorse.

glabrous.

Flowers

sepals lance-linear, 15–25(–30) mm, herbaceous, proximally narrowly ovate, densely hispid, gradually narrowed to ± straight, hispid to strigose or glabrate distal portion longer than ovate base;

corolla usually blue to purplish, sometimes red or white, tube white or yellow inside, funnelform, (20–)30–60+ mm.

sepals elliptic-ovate to oblong-ovate, 6–8 mm, chartaceous or coriaceous, apex acute or obtuse, mucronulate;

corolla usually purple, rarely white, funnelform, 40–50 mm.

= 30.

Ipomoea nil

Ipomoea aquatica

Phenology

Flowering Jul–Dec.

Flowering year-round.

Habitat

Abandoned plantings, fields, thickets.

Abandoned plantings, wet sites.

Elevation

10–2200 m. (0–7200 ft.)

0–100 m. (0–300 ft.)

Distribution

AL; KY; LA; MD; MS; NC; OK; SC; TN; TX; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies [Introduced in North America; introduced also in Asia]

[WildflowerSearch map]

[BONAP county map]

CA; FL; Mexico; Central America; South America; Asia; Africa; Australia [Introduced in North America]

[BONAP county map]

Discussion

Reports of Ipomoea nil from California are based on misidentified material of I. hederacea.

(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. batatas, 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. 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

I. alba, I. amnicola, I. asarifolia, I. barbatisepala, I. batatas, 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 nil, Pharbitis hederacea, P. nil

Name authority

(Linnaeus) Roth: Catal. Bot. 1: 36. (1797)

Forsskål: Fl. Aegypt.-Arab., 44. (1775)

Web links

Local Web sites: LA Plants, MD Biodiversity
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)
USDA Plants Database
LBJ Wildflower Center
SEINet
Plants of the World Online
Encyclopedia of Life
Wikipedia
Google Image Search

Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:

Flora of North America species comparison

Ipomoea nil

Ipomoea aquatica

Ipomoea nil

Ipomoea aquatica