Family Convolvulaceae
Description: Herbs, shrubs, climbers or leafless parasites, glabrous or pubescent.
Leaves alternate, margins entire, lobed or deeply divided.
Inflorescence mainly an axillary cyme, 1 to many-flowered, bracteolate. Flowers actinomorphic, rarely slightly zygomorphic, bisexual, 5-merous or rarely 3 or 4-merous. Sepals usually free. Corolla tubular, funnel-shaped, campanulate, rarely rotate or trumpet-shaped. Stamens 5, fused to the corolla, alternating with corolla lobes; anthers 2-locular, opening by longitudinal slits. Disc usually present. Ovary superior, 1- or 2-, rarely 3- or 4-locular; ovules 2, rarely 1 in each loculus.
Fruit a capsule, dehiscing by valves or circumsciss, rarely fleshy or indehiscent.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 55 genera, c. 1650 species, cosmopolitan, mainly tropical and subtropical regions. Australia: 20 genera, c. 130 species, all States.
External links:
Angiosperm Phylogeny Website (Family: Convolvulaceae, Order: Solanales)
Wikipedia The family includes a number of species with edible starchy tubers, including the sweet potato and native species eaten by Aborigines. Some are toxic to stock, while a few are weeds, mainly of tropical crops. Some exotic species such as the morning glories (Ipomoea species) are widely cultivated for their showy flowers and have become naturalized. The Cuscutaceae (1 gen., c. 170 spp.) are sometimes recognized as a separate family.
Text by R. W. Johnson
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the genera | |
| 1 | Yellow, brown or reddish, leafless parasitic twiners | Cuscuta |
| Green leafy plants, not parasitic on other plants | 2 |
| 2 | Ovary distinctly 2-lobed, styles 2, inserted between the lobes | Dichondra |
| Ovary entire, style or styles terminal
Back to 1 | 3 |
| 3 | Sepals united, with lobes shorter than the tube | Wilsonia |
| Sepals free
Back to 2 | 4 |
| 4 | Styles 2, free or united for up to half their length; hairs bifid | 5 |
| Style 1; hairs simple or bifid
Back to 3 | 7 |
| 5 | Styles united at the base | Bonamia |
| Styles free
Back to 4 | 6 |
| 6 | Styles forked with linear stigmas; flowers axillary | Evolvulus |
| Styles entire with capitate stigmas; flowers terminal
Back to 5 | Cressa |
| 7 | Capsule small, indehiscent, 1-seeded; sepals at fruiting enlarged, spreading, scarious and reticulate; hairs bifid | Duperreya |
| Capsule and fruiting sepals not as above; hairs simple
Back to 4 | 8 |
| 8 | Stigma capitate or biglobose | Ipomoea |
| Stigma lobed, lobes linear or oblong
Back to 7 | 9 |
| 9 | Stigmatic lobes 2 | 10 |
| Stigmatic lobes 4 or more
Back to 8 | Polymeria |
| 10 | Bracteoles large, subtending and more or less enclosing the calyx | Calystegia |
| Bracteoles small, distant from the calyx
Back to 9 | Convolvulus |
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