Ipomoea pes-caprae
The Goat - Morning Glory (Ipomoea pes - caprae ) Rodrigues
The Ziegenfuß - Morning Glory (Ipomoea pes - caprae ), also called beach morning glory is a flowering plant in the genus of morning glories (Ipomoea ), which belongs to the wind family ( Convolvulaceae ). It can be found on tropical beaches and shores around the world.
Description
The Ziegenfuß - Morning Glory is a perennial herbaceous or slightly succulent plant and spreads crawling or climbing. The plants are glabrous, the stems are thick and can be up to 20 m long. The 6-10 cm long leaves have long petioles, the outline of the leaf blade is nearly circular, the tip is broadly rounded, bulged and slightly bilobed, the base rounded or slightly heart-shaped. At the base of the central rib a gland on both sides on the bottom to identify. To protect against the heat in the habitats, the leaves upright. The roots are long and surrounded by a thick brown bark.
The inflorescences consist of one to several flowers, the strong, mostly forked inflorescence stems are just as long as the petioles about. The flower stalks are 2-5 cm long and slender. The approximately 1 cm long sepals are oval or nearly circular and rounded or truncated at the top. The crown reaches a length of 4 to 5 cm and a diameter of 5 to 8 cm and is pink to purple colored, the Saftmal is darker.
The fruits are ovoid - spherical capsules that are about 1.5 cm long and jump up through four doors. They contain two seed compartments four seeds, which are covered with dense hair dark brown.
Dissemination
The Ziegenfuß - Morning Glory is distributed worldwide on tropical beaches, where it is one of the pioneer plants and partly occurs as Kennart certain plant communities in appearance, for instance in the named after her " pes - caprae formation", where she mainly with Canavalia maritima, a legume - type -like habitus ', occurs. Due to the strong root system binds the sand and prevents the washing away of the soil. However, the type colonized non-marine sites on land or at freshwater beaches.
Etymology
The German name Ziegenfuß - Prunkwinde derives from the shape of the leaves, reminiscent of a Ziegenfuß. The significance of the epithet is derived from it.