''Ipomoea simplex'' is a central and eastern

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number of ...

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...

species of Convolvulaceae or

Sweet Potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the Convolvulus, bindweed or morning glory family (biology), family, Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a r ...

family, notable for its large tuber or root, often eaten raw by Xhosa and

Sotho Sotho may refer to: *Sotho people (or ''Basotho''), an African ethnic group principally resident in South Africa, Lesotho and southern Botswana * Sotho language (''Sesotho'' or ''Southern Sotho''), a Bantu language spoken in southern Africa, an off ...

herd boys.

Carl Peter Thunberg Carl Peter Thunberg, also known as Karl Peter von Thunberg, Carl Pehr Thunberg, or Carl Per Thunberg (11 November 1743 – 8 August 1828), was a Swedish naturalist and an "apostle" of Carl Linnaeus. After studying under Linnaeus at Uppsala Un ...

first described this species in the ''Prodromus Plantarum Capensium'' of 1794. 'Ipomoea' = 'worm-like', in reference to the twining habit of the genus. The Earl of Derby presented

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

with a ''"rounded uncouth-looking tuber"'' in 1844, having acquired it from the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...

, and all were completely unprepared for the beauty of its flowers that appeared in July 1845. After flowering, the stems died down nearly to the tuber. The following description is taken verbatim from the plant's appearance in '' Curtis's Botanical Magazine'' of 1846: Edwin Percy Phillips in his survey of th
''Flora of the Leribe Plateau and environs''
in the ''Annals of the South African Museum'' notes that ''Ipomoea simplex'' grows in localities with sparse and uncertain rainfall, prone to fire in the dry season, harsh winter conditions, in the company of other plants with long taproots, thick tuberous roots and underground woody stems, all adaptations to the demands of their habitat. Franz Seiner came across the plant in the sands of the mid- Kalahari.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6065272 Flora of South Africa

simplex In geometry, a simplex (plural: simplexes or simplices) is a generalization of the notion of a triangle or tetrahedron to arbitrary dimensions. The simplex is so-named because it represents the simplest possible polytope in any given dimension. ...

Caudiciform plants Plants described in 1794