Ipomoea pandurata

Common name: Carolina indigo

Ipomoea pandurata
Photo taken by Gil Nelson
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class:	Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Order:	Solanales
Family:	Convolvulaceae
Genus:	Ipomoea
Species:	I. caroliniana
Binomial name
Ipomoea pandurata (L.) G. Mey.
Natural range of Ipomoea pandurata from USDA NRCS Plants Database.

Taxonomic notes

Synonyms: Ipomoea pandurata var. pandurata; I. pandurata var. rubescens Choisy

Description

Ipomoea pandurata is a perennial trailing vine, with heart-shaped leaves, has a large storage root, and makes a new shoot every year (Freeman et al 2004). This species thrives in canopy opening and in thickets (Freeman et al 2004).

"Herbaceous annual or perennial vines, or rarely a shrubby perennial. Flowers axillary, solitary or in 2-5 flowered cymes. Calyx lobes 5, often imbricate; corolla campanulate to funnel-form, or salverform in 2 species; stamens 5, inserted in the corolla tube alternate with the lobes; stigma globose, entire or slightly lobed, style 1, ovary 2-or-4 locular. Capsule 2-4 valved; seeds 2-6, sometimes villous. A large genus of primarily tropical plants, some of which were introduced as horticultural plants and have escaped to become noxious weeds." - Radford et al 1964

"Trailing, glabrate or weakly pubescent perennial from an enlarged root. Leaves ovate, entire or pandurate, 3.5-8 cm long, 2.5-8 cm wide, cordate, often pubescent beneath. Peduncles 1-5 flowered; pedicel glabrous, stout; calyx lobes coriaceous, oblong-elliptic, 12-15 mm long, glabrous, strongly imbricate; corolla campanulate, 6-8 cm long, about sa broad, the limb white, the tube lavender within; anthers 5-7 mm long, stamens and stigma included. Capsule ovoid, ca. 1 cm long; seeds villous on the angles." - Radford et al 1964

Ecology

It was observed that I. pandurata’s growth in recently burned areas is low but in areas that are unburned and have low disturbance have higher growth rates (Freeman et al 2004).

Habitat

Grows in well drained uplands (FSU Herbarium). This species has also been observed to grow in open pine-oak scrub, along roadsides, and in open fields (FSU Herbarium).

Phenology

Flowers in June (FSU Herbarium). Observed growing after a burn at the end of May/early June (Arata 1959).

Fire ecology

Observed growing after a burn at the end of May/early June (Arata 1959). It occurs in mostly longleaf pine communities that are annually burned as well (FSU Herbarium).

References and notes

Arata, A. A. "Effects of burning on vegetation and rodent populations in a longleaf pine-turkey oak association in north central Florida." Quarterly Journal of the Florida Academy of Sciences 22 (1959): 94-104.

Florida State University Robert K. Godfrey Herbarium database. URL: http://herbarium.bio.fsu.edu. Last accessed: June 2014. Collectors: Loran C. Anderson, R. F. Doren, R. Komarek, R. A. Norris, and Gwynn W. Ramsey. States and Counties: Florida: Gadsden and Leon. Georgia: Brooks, Grady, and Thomas.

Freeman, D. Carl, Michelle L. Brown, Jeffrey J. Duda, John H. Graham, John M. Emlen, Anthony J. Krzysik, Harold E. Balbach, David A. Kovacic, and John C. Zak. "Photosynthesis and Fluctuating Asymmetry as Indicators of Plant Response to Soil Disturbance in the Fall‐Line Sandhills of Georgia: A Case Study Using Rhus Copallinum and Ipomoea Pandurata." International Journal of Plant Sciences 165.5 (2004): 805-16. Web. 24 June 2013.

Radford, Albert E., Harry E. Ahles, and C. Ritchie Bell. Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas. 1964, 1968. The University of North Carolina Press. 864-8. Print.