''Ipomoea nil'' is a species of ''

Ipomoea ''Ipomoea'' () is the largest genus in the plant family Convolvulaceae, with over 600 species. It is a large and diverse group, with common names including morning glory, water convolvulus or water spinach, sweet potato, bindweed, moonfl ...

'' morning glory known by several common names, including picotee morning glory, ivy morning glory, and Japanese morning glory (although it is not native to Japan). It is native to the tropical Americas, and has been introduced widely across the world.

Description

Native to

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

and

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, the plant is a climber with twining stems up to 5 m long and is dense to scattered with long hairy

trichomes Trichomes (); ) are fine outgrowths or appendages on plants, algae, lichens, and certain protists. They are of diverse structure and function. Examples are hairs, glandular hairs, scales, and papillae. A covering of any kind of hair on a plant ...

. The finely hairy,

emerald green Varieties of the color green may differ in hue, chroma (also called saturation or intensity) or lightness (or value, tone, or brightness), or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint b ...

leaves are

ovate Ovate may refer to: * Ovate (egg-shaped) leaves, tepals, or other botanical parts *Ovate, a type of prehistoric stone hand axe *Ovates, one of three ranks of membership in the Welsh Gorsedd *Vates In modern English, the nouns vates () and ova ...

to almost circular, 5 to 14 cm long. The base is heart-shaped, the edge is entire or lobed three to five times, the leaf lobes are pointed or tapering. The leaves are very similar to those of ''

Ipomoea hederacea ''Ipomoea hederacea'', the ivy-leaved morning glory, is a flowering plant in the Convolvulaceae, bindweed family. The species is native to tropical parts of the Americas, and has more recently been introduced to North America. It now occurs the ...

''. The funnel-shaped, colorful flowers (blue to reddish-purple, with whitish tube) are quite showy and are individually up to five in often dense

cymose An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

groups, in which fully developed flowers and developing buds stand together. The wild forms are smaller than cultivated forms, and are almost always blue; the cultivated forms come in a wide variety of colors. They open in the morning and close by the afternoon. The long,

thorn Thorn(s) or The Thorn(s) may refer to: Botany * Thorns, spines, and prickles, sharp structures on plants * ''Crataegus monogyna'', or common hawthorn, a plant species Comics and literature * Rose and Thorn, the two personalities of two DC Com ...

y hairy sepals have a length of 15 to 25 mm, they are long,

lanceolate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

, and have a linear-lanceolate tip. The

crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...

is blue, purple, or almost scarlet red. The throat is often colored white. The crown tube has a length of 3 to 5 cm, the crown hem has a width of 4 to 5 cm. The fruits are almost spherical to spherical capsule fruits with a diameter of 8 to 12 mm. The seeds are pear-shaped and densely covered with short trichomes.

Cultivation

It is cultivated as an

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...

in many places, and the descendants of garden escapees now grow wild. Fast-growing and self-seeding, it may be used to hide unsightly fences or walls, and may also be used decoratively on trellises. The flowers are several centimeters wide and appear in various shades of blue, pink or rose, often with white stripes or edges or blends of colors. Common

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

s include 'Scarlet O'Hara', 'Early Call', and 'Rose Silk'. Hybrids, for instance with '' I. purpurea'', have been developed. Some of these have been given the name ''I. x imperialis'' (Imperial Japanese morning glory), which is not official. Cultivars include 'Sunrise Serenade'. Alternative nomenclatures include ''Ipomoea nil x imperialis'', as in 'Cameo Elegance', or ''Ipomoea nil' 'Imperialis'. It is a

frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor in an above-freezing atmosphere coming in contact with a solid surface whose temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a phase change from water vapor (a gas) ...

tender annual in colder areas or if placed in shaded area in the garden, but can be kept as a perennial if it is well managed and placed in full sun during the winter.

Morning glories in Japan

Morning glories Morning glory (also written as morning-glory) is the common name for over 1,000 species of flowering plants in the family Convolvulaceae, whose current taxonomy and systematics are in flux. Morning glory species belong to many genera, some of ...

are popular in Japan. They are believed to have been introduced there directly from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese ...

of the 8th to 9th centuries. During the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

of the 17th to 19th centuries, as more people started to live in cities, a fad for growing potted morning glories of different colors and sizes swept through the country. The pots are often equipped with cylindrical structures called ''andon shitate'' (), which look like Japanese lanterns at night. In early summer, morning glory markets are held in large cities in Japan, where merchants and hobbyists sell the flowers. The largest of such markets is the Iriya Morning Glory Market (Japanese: 入谷朝顔市, July 6–8), held along the roads surrounding Shingenji Temple, commonly called "Iriya

Kishibojin Hārītī (Sanskrit), also known as , ja, text=鬼子母神, translit=Kishimojin, is both a revered goddess and demon, depending on the Buddhist tradition. She is one of the Twenty-Four Protective Deities of Mahayana Buddhism. In her positive ...

", in Iriya, Taito-ku, Tokyo.All About Iriya Asagao (Morning Glory) Market/Festival: how to get to, schedule & souvenirs
(Tokyo Direct Diary)

Gallery

File:Totoiriyaasagao hiroshige.jpg, "Morning Glories in Iriya, Eastern Capital" (1866), No 28 of "The Thirty-six Selected Flower Scenes" by

Hiroshige II was a Japanese designer of ukiyo-e art. He inherited the name Hiroshige II following the death in 1858 of his master Hiroshige, whose daughter he married. In 1865 he moved from Edo to Yokohama after dissolving his marriage and began using ...

File:Asagao Festival 002.JPG, The Iriya Morning Glory Market, Tokyo (2008) File:牽牛花 Ipomoea nil 20210321102223 01.jpg, Growing in the wild File:牽牛花 Ipomoea nil 20210321102223 02.jpg, Growing in the wild

References

External links

* *
Jepson Manual Treatment

Aluka Species Profile

{{Authority control

nil Nil may refer to: * nil (the number 0, zero) Acronyms * NIL (programming language), an implementation of the Lisp programming language * Student athlete compensation, Name, Image and Likeness, a set of rules in the American National Collegiate At ...