Ipomoea cairica (Messina Creeper)

Life > eukaryotes > Archaeoplastida > Chloroplastida > Charophyta > Streptophytina > Plantae (land plants) > Tracheophyta (vascular plants) > Euphyllophyta > Lignophyta (woody plants) > Spermatophyta (seed plants) > Angiospermae (flowering plants) > Eudicotyledons > Core Eudicots > Asterids > Euasterid I > Order: Solanales > Family: Convolvulaceae > Genus: Ipomoea

On hillside at The Heads, Knysna. Indigenous in South Africa. Note each leaf is divided into 5-7 pointed leaflets .

The Messina Creeper Ipomoea cairica occurs from Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape up into tropical Africa and Asia. It is also a weedy species in the Cape Peninsula (Goldblatt and Manning, 2000) and some other parts of the Western Cape such as Knysna (see above).

Text and photos by Hamish Robertson