St. Thomas Lidpod

The leaves and roots are used medicinally.

Herbs perennial. Roots fleshy, long, much branched. Stems reddish, to 4 m, narrowly 3-5-winged, ± angular, gla-brous or densely pilose-tomentose on young parts. Petiole 2-10 cm, often winged; leaf blade cordate-circular, ovate, broadly ovate, ovate-lanceolate, or lanceolate, 4-14 X 3.5-14 cm, abaxially pubescent, adaxially appressed pilose to gla-brous, base cordate, truncate or obtuse, margin entire or undulate, apex acute or acuminate, mucronulate. Inflorescences cymose, often 2-flowered; peduncles 0.5-3 cm, usually terete; bracts 2, oblong to ovate-oblong, 1-2.5 cm, concave, pubescent. Pedicel 1.5-2 cm, striate-angular, clavate, to 4 cm in fruit. Sepals ovate to broadly ovate, unequal; outer 2 sepals 1.5-2 cm, abaxially pubescent; inner 3 shorter, subglabrous. Corolla white, sometimes with a yellowish base inside, broadly funnelform, 3.5-4 cm, glabrous, minutely yellowish glandular outside; limb 5-lobed. Filaments pubescent basally; anthers twisted. Fruit enclosed in cupular calyx, depressed globose, ca. 1.5 cm in diam. Seeds dull black, ovoid-trigonous, ca. 6 mm, glabrous. Fl. and fr. year round. 2n = 30.

Widespread in Old World tropics from East Africa to north Australia and Polynesia, introduced in West Indies.

Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, S Yunnan [?Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan (Ryukyu Islands), ?Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, ?Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; E Africa, Australia, introduced in North and South America (West Indies), Pacific Islands]

600 m

Streambanks, roadsides, grassy fields, wasteland, dry slopes, clay and sandy soils, scrub bordering valleys; 0-500 m.

Convolvulus turpethum Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 155. 1753; Argyreia alulata Miquel; Convolvulus anceps Linnaeus; Ipomoea anceps (Linnaeus) Roemer & Schultes; I. turpethum (Linnaeus) R. Brown; I. turpethum var. anceps (Linnaeus) Miquel; Merremia turpethum (Linnaeus) Bojer; Operculina turpethum var. heterophylla H. Hallier; Spiranthera turpethum (Linnaeus) Bojer.

Tropical East Africa (just reaching the extreme N of the FZ region), tropical Asia, Polynesia and the Mascarenes; introduced elsewhere

Operculina turpethum (L.) Manso

Operculina turpethum (L.) Manso, Enum. Subst. Braz., 16, 1836.

Convolvulus turpethum L., Sp. Pl., 155, 1753.

Coarse subglabrous twiner with angled to winged stems (Marquesan specimens weakly angled, not winged); leaves elongate triangular with slightly hastate base to orbicular cordate, with broad basal sinus, puberulent; peduncles with 1–3 flowers, pedicels becoming very thick, 2–4 cm long, bracts less than 2 cm long, early caducous; calyx lobes large, orbicular, apex rounded to obtuse, sharply mucronate, 2–3 cm long, sericeous, somewhat accrescent; corolla broadly campanulate, 5–6 cm long; capsule globose, about 1.5 cm long, or somewhat more; seeds black, glabrous.

Apparently very rare in the Marquesas, no definite localities known.

SPECIMEN SEEN.—Marquesas Islands: s.l., Dupetit-Thouars 20 (US). Nukuhiva I.: Henry 57 (P).

LOCAL NAME.—Pania oke (Dupetit-Thouars 20).

Stictocardia Hallier f.

Stictocardia Hallier f., Bot. Jahrb., 18:159, 1894.

Large twiners; leaves glandular beneath; peduncles axillary, bearing cymes; sepals elliptic to orbicular, greatly accrescent and thickened in fruit; corolla funnelform-campanulate; stamens and style included, pollen spinulose; stigmas 2, globose; capsule completely enclosed by accrescent calyx, globose, 4-celled, the septa with transverse wings, wall thin, irregularly dehiscent leaving the septa and their wings enclosing seeds; seeds pubescent.

Pantropical, with one species in the Marquesas.

Differs from Ipomoea only in the glandular leaves, the thickened closed fruiting calyx and the structure of the capsule.

Operculina turpethum (syn. Ipomoea turpethum) is a species of plant in the morning glory family, known commonly as turpeth, fue vao, and St. Thomas lidpod.

It is perennial, herbaceous, and hairy vine growing 4 to 5 meters in length, endemic to India. It is commonly found in the North Circars and Deccan region up to 3000 ft. The leaves are alternate, very variable in shape, ovate, oblong and truncate or cordate at the base. The flowers are large, axillary, and solitary. The fruit is a capsule with conspicuous enlarged sepals and thickened pedicles.

It is actually not a purgative but a mild laxative.