Ipomoea spathulata
Hall. f.
ConvolvulaceaeRoots
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(c) kaibehn, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by kaibehn
What to Eat
Edible parts: Root
The roots are used in soup.
Where to Find It
It is a tropical plant.
Africa, East Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda,
Countries: Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Benin, Botswana, Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Congo (Republic), Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Comoros, Liberia, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe, Eswatini, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe
How to Identify
A herb. It can be scrambling and have branches 2.4 m long. The leaves are almost round and 9-13 cm long by 9-11 cm wide. They have fine silky hairs underneath. Several flowers occur together in a group.
References (3)
- East African Herbarium records, 1981,
- Mutie, F. M., et al, 2023, Important Medicinal and Food Taxa (Orders and Families) in Kenya, Based on Three Quantitative Approaches. Plants 2023, 12, 1145
- Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 96
