Ipomoea trilobaL.

Littlebelllittlebell

WFO wfo-0001297271 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Ipomoea triloba, photographed by Oscar Gonzalez Diaz
fig. a Oscar Gonzalez Diaz, CC0 1.0 / 2022-05-11 / obs. 197042218
Ipomoea triloba, photographed by Enéas V. Gouvêa Junior
fig. b Enéas V. Gouvêa Junior, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 191986972
Ipomoea triloba, photographed by Oscar Gonzalez Diaz
fig. c Oscar Gonzalez Diaz, CC0 1.0 / obs. 187568646
Ipomoea triloba, photographed by 葉子
fig. d 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 204372618
Ipomoea triloba, photographed by 葉子
fig. e 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 204366225
Ipomoea triloba, photographed by 葉子
fig. f 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 184800839
Ipomoea triloba, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. g Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 180643823
Ipomoea triloba, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. h Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 180161653

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.

Native range 34 botanical countries

Regions where Ipomoea triloba is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Aruba, Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Cayman Is., Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Galápagos, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Netherlands Antilles, Panamá, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Turks-Caicos Is., Venezuela, Windward Is. Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBelizeBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEl SalvadorGuatemalaHaitiHondurasJamaicaPanamáPuerto RicoTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela ArubaBahamasBermudaCayman Is.GalápagosLeeward Is.Netherlands AntillesTurks-Caicos Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Ipomoea triloba, 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
Aruba ARU SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bahamas BAH
Belize BLZ
Bermuda BER
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Cayman Is. CAY
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
El Salvador ELS
Galápagos GAL
Guatemala GUA
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Netherlands Antilles NLA
Panamá PAN
Puerto Rico PUE
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Turks-Caicos Is. TCI
Venezuela VEN
Windward Is. WIN
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

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.

Flowering 464 in flower of 487 examined

Peak flowering in Feb. Each bar is the share of Ipomoea triloba observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 464 of 487 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 20 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.

  • Amphione lobata Raf.
  • Batatas triloba Choisy
  • Convolvulus heterophyllus Sessé & Moc.
  • Convolvulus ipomoea Vell.
  • Convolvulus mariannensis (Choisy) Gaudich. ex Saff.
  • Convolvulus sloanei Spreng.
  • Convolvulus subquinquelobus W.Wood
  • Convolvulus trilobus (L.) Desr.
  • Ipomoea blancoi Choisy
  • Ipomoea eustachiana Jacq.
  • Ipomoea galapagensis Andersson
  • Ipomoea hirta M.Martens & Galeotti
  • Ipomoea krugii Urb.
  • Ipomoea mariannensis Choisy
  • Ipomoea parviflora Vahl
  • Ipomoea setifera var. orbicularis Chodat & Hassl.
  • Ipomoea triloba var. quinquefolia Kuntze
  • Ipomoea webbii Cout.
  • Quamoclit eustachiana (Jacq.) G.Don
  • Quamoclit triloba (L.) G.Don

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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. 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.