Ipomoea simoesiana - Hairy Yellow Morning Glory

Hairy Yellow Morning Glory is a perennial climber, about 3 m long; roots tuberous, slender, about 5 x about 3 cm. It is a newly (2024) described species, named for the botanist Ana Rita Simões. Stems are profusely branched, round, densely hairy, without milky latex; young branches hairy; hairs silvery. This species is quite similar to Yellow Deccan Morning Glory but can be easily distinguished by its hairyness. Leaves are broadly ovate, 3-6.5 x 2.5-5 cm, base heart-shaped, tip pointed to tapering, bristly on both surfaces; leaf-stalks 1-5 cm long, densely bristly; exstipulate. Flowers are borne in 1-3-flowered cymes in leaf axils. Flowers are yellow, funnel shaped, 3-3.6 x 3-3.2 cm, carried on flower-stalks 0.7-1.2 cm long. Flower-tube is about 2 cm long, velvet-hairy outside, hairless inside; limb entire, 3-3.2 cm across. Stamens are 5, nearly equal, not protruding, filaments 0.8-0.9 cm long. Ovary is stalkless, ovoid, 0.3-0.4 cm long, hairless; style 1.3-1.5 cm long, hairless, slender; stigma 2-lobed. Bracts are lanceshaped, 0.3-0.5 x about 0.1 cm, at joint of flower-stalk with flower-cluster-stalk, covered with silky hairs. Sepals are 5, densely silvery-silky hairy on outside, hairless inside, lobes nearly equal, 0.9-1.2 x 0.2-0.3 cm, oblong-pointed. Capsules are ovoid, 0.8-1.2 x 0.7-0.9 cm, hairless, 4-valved, 2-celled.