Convolvulus sabatius Viv., Fl. Libyc. Spec. 67. 1824. (Viviani 1824: 67).

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 : 114

84. Convolvulus sabatius Viv., Fl. Libyc. Spec. 67. 1824. (Viviani 1824: 67).

Type.

ITALY, Liguria, Viviani s.n. (holotype GE; isotype G-DC).

Description.

Rather variable perennial herb from a woody rootstock, the stems sometimes short and straight and sometimes with trailing, flexuose stems at least 40 cm long; vegetative parts varying from appressed puberulent to villous. Leaves petiolate, 0.5-3 × 0.3-2.2 cm, ovate to suborbicular, rounded to obtuse, entire, base truncate to subcordate and shortly cuneate onto the petiole; petioles 1-5 mm. Flowers 1-3 in shortly pedunculate axillary dichasial cymes; peduncles 0.5-3.5 cm, commonly flexuose and sometimes recurving in fruit; bracteoles 3-13 × 0.5-2.5 mm, linear to oblong-lanceolate; pedicels 3-12 mm; outer sepals 5-7 × 2-2.5 mm, oblong-lanceolate, acute; inner sepals broader (c. 3 mm wide), thinly pubescent except ciliate margins, membranous; corolla 1.6-2 cm long, blue or violet, unlobed, midpetaline bands pilose; filaments glandular below; ovary glabrous; style glabrous, divided c. 4 mm above ovary, stigmas 3 mm. Capsule glabrous; seeds glabrous, tuberculate. [ Sa’ad 1967: 196; Carine and Robba 2010: 17; Pignatti 1982: 388]

Notes.

Carine and Robba (2010) circumscribed two subspecies as indicated below. There is much variation in leaf size, especially in North African material. The two subspecies are distinguished by sepal characters but are perhaps most easily recognised because of their geographical disjunction.