Ipomoea praecox Wright

Wood, John R. I., Munoz-Rodriguez, Pablo, Williams, Bethany R. M. & Scotland, Robert W., 2020, A foundation monograph of Ipomoea (Convolvulaceae) in the New World, PhytoKeys 143, pp. 1-823 : 1

193. Ipomoea praecox Wright , Anales Acad. Cien. Med., Habana 7: 46. 1870. (Sauvalle 1870: 46)

Type.

CUBA. [Pinar del Río], Lomas de Rangel, C. Wright 3646 [No. 1653 in Sauvalle 1870] (lectotype HAC, designated by Wood and Scotland (2017: 4), possible isolectotypes GH, K, NY).

Description.

Twining perennial of unknown size; stems densely white-villous, somewhat glabrescent. Leaves absent at flowering, petiolate, 2.5-5.3 × 1.6-2.4 cm, ovate, cordate, apex rounded to retuse, mucronate, both surfaces tomentellous but abaxially grey; petioles 8-10 mm. Inflorescence of very shortly pedunculate, rather dense, up to 6-flowered cymes, often racemose in form, the peduncle forming the rhachis of the raceme; peduncles 4-20 mm (but <7 mm to first bracteole), villous; bracteoles 7 × 1.5 mm, narrowly oblong, acute; secondary peduncles 2-3 mm; pedicels 7-10 mm; sepals subequal, suborbicular to broadly obovate, 7-8 × 5-7 mm, slightly enlarging in fruit, reddish, lanate below, glabrous above; corolla 3-3.5 cm long, red, glabrous, hypocrateriform with cylindrical tube; limb 1.5-2 cm. Capsules glabrous, ovoid; seeds 5-6 × 3-4 mm with long white marginal hairs.

Illustration.

Wood and Scotland (2017c: 5).

Distribution.

Endemic to western Cuba, where it is characteristic of limestone mogotes.

CUBA. Pinar del Río: Santa Cruz de los Pinos, Bro. León 22872 (HAC); ibid., Bro. Alain 466 (HAC, HAJB); La Palma, Loma Peluda de Cajalbana, J. Bisse & H. Lippold s.n. (HAC); Bahia Honda, Finca Toscano, J. Bisse & H. Lippold (HAJB18678); Candelaria, Sierra del Rosario, Loma Pelada de Cayajabos (del Mulo), J. Bisse et al. (HAJB48979); Las Villas, Soledad, A. Gonzáles 554 (BM).

Note.

The type of Ipomoea praecox is leafless. It also differs from Ipomoea argentifolia in the smaller suborbicular, upwardly glabrous sepals.