''Ipomoea hederacea'', the ivy-leaved morning glory, is a

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

in the bindweed family. The species is native to tropical parts of the Americas, and has more recently been introduced to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. It now occurs there from

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

and north to

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

and

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

. Like most members of the family, it is a climbing

vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselv ...

with alternate

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

on twining stems. The flowers are blue to rose-purple with a white inner throat and emerge in summer and continue until late fall. The leaves are typically three-lobed, but sometimes may be five-lobed or entire. Flowers occur in clusters of one to three and are 2.5-4.5 cm long and wide. The

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...

s taper to long, recurved tips and measure 12–24 mm long. The species shares some features with the close relative ''

Ipomoea purpurea ''Ipomoea purpurea'', the common morning-glory, tall morning-glory, or purple morning glory, is a species in the genus ''Ipomoea'', native to Mexico and Central America. Description Like all morning glories, the plant entwines itself around stru ...

''.Miller, J.H., & Miller, K.V. (1999). ''Forest plants of the southeast and their wildlife uses''. Champaign, IL: Kings Time Printing.

Ecology

The morning glories are little used by

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

. The large seeds are taken infrequently by

northern bobwhite The northern bobwhite (''Colinus virginianus''), also known as the Virginia quail or (in its home range) bobwhite quail, is a ground-dwelling bird native to Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Cuba, with introduced populations elsewhere in th ...

and seed-eating

songbirds A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 500 ...

. Flowers are used by some of the larger butterflies such as swallowtails and fritillaries and the

ruby-throated hummingbird The ruby-throated hummingbird (''Archilochus colubris'') is a species of hummingbird that generally spends the winter in Central America, Mexico, and Florida, and migrates to Canada and other parts of Eastern North America for the summer to bree ...

. Most of the pollinations of ''Ipomoea hederacea'' are achieved by

self-pollination Self-pollination is a form of pollination in which pollen from the same plant arrives at the Stigma (botany), stigma of a flower (in flowering plants) or at the ovule (in gymnosperms). There are two types of self-pollination: in autogamy, pollen i ...

, with a selfing rate of 93% observed in one population. ''Ipomoea hederacea'' has been studied as a target of

character displacement Character displacement is the phenomenon where differences among similar species whose distributions overlap geographically are accentuated in regions where the species co-occur, but are minimized or lost where the species' distributions do not o ...

. When it co-occurs with ''

'',

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the heritable traits characteristic of a population over generations. Charle ...

favors individuals of ''I. hederacea'' with

anther The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

s that are more tightly clustered around the stigma. This is to presumably reduce pollinations of ''I. hederacea'' by ''I. purpurea'', which, should they occur, results in sterile seeds, wasting valuable resources of the parent plant and reducing fitness. This fitness reduction is not reciprocal, however, as ''I. hederacea'' pollen does not germinate on ''I. purpurea'' stigmas, thus giving the latter species a potential advantage competitively. This selective pressure leads the anthers to form a barrier over the stigma of ''I. hederacea'' to protect from pollen from other species making contact, but possibly increasing

, as well. When ''I. hederacea'' occurs by itself, however, no such selective pressure is evident and anther barriers are looser and less consistent.

References

hederacea Flora of Michigan Flora of Arizona Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Solanales-stub