Convolvulus tricolor L., Sp. Pl. 158. 1753. (Linnaeus 1753: 158).

Wood, John R. I., Williams, Bethany R. M., Mitchell, Thomas C., Carine, Mark A., Harris, David J. & Scotland, Robert W., 2015, A foundation monograph of Convolvulus L. (Convolvulaceae), PhytoKeys 51, pp. 1-282 : 119

90. Convolvulus tricolor L., Sp. Pl. 158. 1753. (Linnaeus 1753: 158). Figure 12, t. 40-48

Type.

Herb. Clifford 68, Convolvulus 12, sheet A, (lectotype BM-000558104, designated by Sa’ad 1967: 204).

Description.

Annual herb, commonly branched at the base, reaching c. 40 cm, stems and leaves with long, stiff spreading hairs mixed with short, appressed hairs. Lower leaves 2.5-4.5 × 0.7-1.4 cm, obovate-spathulate, obtuse or emarginate, entire, base tapering, stem leaves 1.5-4 (-5) × 0.2-1(-1.8) cm, oblong, obovate or oblanceolate, sessile. Flowers solitary, axillary, pedunculate; bracts lanceolate, acute, resembling upper leaves; peduncles 1-4 cm, slender, flexuose, becoming recurved in fruit; bracteoles 2-3 mm, filiform, acute; pedicels 3-7 mm, not well differentiated from the peduncles; sepals 5.5-7 × 2.5-3 mm, broadly oblong to pandurate, scarious-margined, pilose, clearly differentiated into two parts, the upper green, acute to apiculate, the lower part colourless; corolla 2-3 (-3.5) cm long, tricoloured blue, white and yellow, weakly 5-angled with apices of lobes pointed, midpetaline bands adpressed pilose; filaments glandular below, ovary pilose; style glabrous, divided c. 5-6 mm above base, stigmas 5-6 mm. Capsule pilose, much exceeding calyx; seeds tuberculate. [ Sa’ad 1967: 204; Feinbrun-Dothan 1978 (plate 63); Pignatti 1982: 388; Tohmé and Tohmé 2007: 217 (photo); Silvestre 2012: 270, 271 (plate)]

Notes.

We recognise two subspecies whose ranges overlap in North Africa: