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Ipomoea tricolor

Ipomoea tricolor
Ipomoea tricolor-1.jpg
Ipomoea tricolor 'Heavenly Blue'
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Solanales
Family: Convolvulaceae
Genus: Ipomoea
Species: I. tricolor
Binomial name
Ipomoea tricolor
Cav.

Ipomoea tricolor (grannyvine or morning glory) is a species of flowering plant in the family Convolvulaceae, native to the New World tropics, and widely cultivated and naturalised elsewhere. It is an herbaceous annual or perennial twining liana growing to 2–4 m (7–13 ft) tall. The leaves are spirally arranged, 3–7 cm long with a 1.5–6 cm long petiole. The flowers are trumpet-shaped, 4–9 cm (2–4 in) in diameter, most commonly blue with a white to golden yellow centre.

In cultivation, the species is very commonly grown misnamed as Ipomoea violacea, actually a different though related species. Numerous cultivars of I. tricolor with different flower colours have been selected for use as ornamental plants; widely grown examples include Blue Star, Flying Saucers, Heavenly Blue, Heavenly Blue Improved, Pearly Gates, Rainbow Flash, Skylark, Summer Skies and Wedding Bells. The cultivar 'Heavenly Blue' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

The seeds, vines, flowers, and leaves contain ergoline alkaloids, and have been used for centuries by many Mexican Native American cultures as an entheogen; R. Gordon Wasson has argued that the hallucinogenic seeds used by the Aztecs under the Nahuatl name tlitliltzin, were the seeds of I. tricolor. Wasson also noted that the Zapotecs of Oaxaca know the seeds as badoh negro.


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Wikipedia

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