§ 2. IPOMŒ̀A proper. Corolla funnel-form or nearly campanulate, contorted in the bud; stamens and style not exserted.
[*] (Morning Glory.) Lobes of stigma and cells 3; sepals long and narrow, attenuate upward, mostly hirsute below, corolla purple, blue, and white.
I. hederàcea, Jacq. Stems retrorsely hairy, leaves heart-shaped, 3-lobed, the lobes acute or acuminate; peduncles short, or rather long, 1–3-flowered; calyx densely hairy below; corolla white and purple or pale blue (1–1½´ long). (I. Nil. of Manual, not Roth.)—Waste and cultivated ground, Penn. to Fla., and La. (Trop. Amer.)
I. purpùrea, Lam. (Common Morning-Glory.) Annual, stems retrorsely hairy; leaves heart shaped, acuminate, entire; peduncles long, umbellately 3–5-flowered; calyx bristly hairy below; corolla funnel-form (2´ long), purple, varying to white.—Escaped in cultivated grounds. (Trop. Amer.)
[*][*] Stigma 2-lobed or entire; cells 2, each 2-seeded; sepals broader, imbricated.
[+] Leaves cordate, acuminate.
1 I. panduràta, Meyer. (Wild Potato-vine. Man-of-the-Earth.) Perennial, smooth or nearly so when old, trailing or sometimes twining; leaves occasionally contracted at the sides so as to be fiddle-shaped; peduncles longer than the petioles, 1–5-flowered; sepals smooth, ovate-oblong, very obtuse; corolla open-funnel-form (3´ long), white with purple in the tube.—Dry ground, Conn. to Mich., south to Fla. and Tex. June–Aug. Stems long and stout, from a huge root, which often weighs 10–20 pounds.
2 I. lacunòsa, L. Annual; rather smooth; stem twining and creeping, slender; leaves entire or angled-lobed; peduncles short, 1–3-flowered; sepals lance-oblong, pointed, bristly-ciliate or hairy, half the length of the sharply 5-lobed (white, ½–{1/3}´ long) corolla.—River-banks and low grounds, Penn. to Ill., south to S. C. and Tex.
[+][+] Leaves linear; not twining.
3 I. leptophýlla, Torr. Perennial, very glabrous; stems erect or ascending (2–4° high), with slender recurving branches, from an immense root (weighing 10–100 pounds); leaves 2–4´ long, 2–3´´ wide, short-petioled, acute; peduncles short, 1–2-flowered; sepals broadly ovate, very obtuse, outer ones shorter; corolla pink-purple, funnel-form, about 3´ long.—Plains of Neb. to central Kan., Tex., and westward.