CONVOLVULACEAE - MORNING GLORY FAMILY
Scientific Description:
Shrublets or herbs, frequently climbing or trailing. Leaves alternate, petiolate or sessile, exstipulate. Flowers hermaphrodite, actinomorphic, solitary or not, axillary and/or terminal, bracteate or not. Sepals 5, free, imbricate. Corolla 5-angled, gamopetalous, trumpet-shaped, aestivation plicate-contorted, rarely lobed to −½− way and imbricate (Cressa L.). Stamens 5, epipetalous, included or exserted. Ovary superior, 1−4-locular, placentation axile, ovules 1 or 2 per loculus. Styles 1−2, terminal. Fruit a capsule.
Reference:
Davis PH (1978). Convolvulaceae, In: Davis PH (ed.), Flora of Turkey and the East Aegean Islands, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 6: 197.
Public Description:
The “morning glory family” contains mostly herbaceous vines, but also trees, shrubs and herbs that widely cultivated for their colourful funnel-shaped flowers. The leaves and starchy tuberous roots of some species are used as foodstuffs, e.g. “sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) ” and “water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica Forrsk.)”, and their seeds are exploited for their medicinal value as purgatives. The seeds of botho species are sources of hallucinogenic drugs ancient times and nowadays.
References:
Anonymous 1 (2016). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convolvulaceae, Accessed date: 02.02.2016.
Anonymous 2 (2016). http://www.britannica.com/plant/Convolvulaceae, Accessed date: 02.02.2016.
