Plants annual or perennial herbs or shrubs with erect to prostrate or twining stems. Leaves entire, lobed, or compound. Inflorescences axillary, of solitary flowers or fcymose clusters of few-many flowers. Flowers:sepals often unequal; corollas usually funnel-shaped, usually almost entire; pollen spinulose; ovaries 2-5-celled, usually with 4 ovules; styles filiform; stigmas 2, globular. Capsules 3-10 valved; seeds usually 4, glabrous, pubescent, or covered with long hairs.
Ipomoea includes about 600 species, most of which grow in tropical regions. Humans use many of the species for food (Ipomoea batatas, sweet potato; Ipomoea aquatica, water spinach). Ipomoea batatas was one the species Polynesians carried in their canoes when they settled the Pacific Islands. For more information on the genus, see Wikipedia.
Note: GBIF records include introduced and cultivated plants. Consequently, the distribution shown often differs from statements about a taxon's native distribution.
