Ipomoea rubensChoisy

WFO wfo-0001297771 Accepted WFO 2026-06 7 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–g · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Ipomoea rubens, photographed by Vincent A. Vos
fig. a Vincent A. Vos, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-04-27 / obs. 69817070

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
1014027
Filed as
Ipomoea rubens Choisy
Det. by
D. F. Austin 1995-06-01
Collected
J. E. de Paula
Origin
BR
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 41 botanical countries

Regions where Ipomoea rubens is native: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Gulf of Guinea Is., Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Assam, Bangladesh, Borneo, India, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Philippines, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam AngolaBeninBotswanaBurkinaBurundiCameroonCentral African RepublicChadCongoDR CongoEthiopiaGhanaGuineaGulf of Guinea Is.Ivory CoastKenyaMadagascarMalawiMozambiqueNamibiaNigerNigeriaRwandaSenegalSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabweAssamBangladeshBorneoIndiaJawaLesser Sunda Is.PhilippinesSumateraThailandVietnam Comoros
Native distribution of Ipomoea rubens, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Botswana BOT
Burkina BKN
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Comoros COM
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Ethiopia ETH
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Niger NGR
Nigeria NGA
Rwanda RWA
Senegal SEN
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
Borneo BOR
India IND
Jawa JAW
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Philippines PHI
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 63 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 9.3 °C 19.2 °C 23.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 29.8 °C 33.4 °C 36.5 °C
Annual rainfall 481 mm 1,661 mm 3,109 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 1 mm 46 mm 212 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 63 research-grade observations of Ipomoea rubens that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 22 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Argyreia rubens (C.B.Clarke) Raizada
  • Convolvulus lilacinus D.Dietr.
  • Convolvulus rubens Wall.
  • Ipomoea baclii Choisy
  • Ipomoea bonii Gagnep.
  • Ipomoea brasseuriana De Wild.
  • Ipomoea fragrans (Bojer ex Choisy) Baker
  • Ipomoea fragrans (Bojer ex Choisy) Bojer ex Hallier f.
  • Ipomoea garnieri Standl. & L.O.Williams
  • Ipomoea hovarum Rendle
  • Ipomoea lilacina Blume
  • Ipomoea lindleyi Choisy
  • Ipomoea oxyphylla Baker
  • Ipomoea parkeri Choisy
  • Ipomoea parkeri var. subsericea Meisn.
  • Ipomoea riparia G.Don
  • Ipomoea senegambica A.Chev.
  • Ipomoea stuhlmannii Dammer
  • Ipomoea villicalyx N.E.Br.
  • Lettsomia rubens C.B.Clarke
  • Mouroucoa rubens Kuntze
  • Pharbitis fragrans Bojer

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.