Species
+

Ipomoea pauciflora M.Martens & Galeotti

tree morning glory, tree morningglory

Climate known 63 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

About the genus · Ipomoea

Ipomoea is the largest genus in the plant family Convolvulaceae, with over 600 species. It is a large and diverse group, with common names including morning glory, water Convolvulus or water spinach, sweet potato, bindweed, moonflower, etc. The genus occurs throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, and comprises annual and perennial herbaceous plants, lianas, shrubs, and small trees; most of the species are twining climbing plants.

Text from Wikipedia, “Ipomoea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Convolvulaceae
Described by
M.Martens & Galeotti
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest +7
Wild records
812 in range· 365 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Apr, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
766mm/yr
6 wet months · peak Jun 150 mm (CHELSA)
Light
32–46DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 766 mm a year, wettest June at 150 mm, driest December at 7 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 32 to 46 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 5.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Ipomoea pauciflora subsp. pauciflora; Ipomoea pauciflora subsp. vargasiana (O'Donell) Mc Pherson; Ipomoea pauciflora subsp. vargasiana (O'Donell) McPherson; Ipomoea vargasiana O'Donell.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (570 mm of 766 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.0 °C against a yearly mean of 20.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 766 mm a year, wettest June at 150 mm, driest December at 7 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

766 mm a year at the habitat, 570 mm of it June to September. Wettest month June at 150 mm, driest December at 7 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 573 mm to 1352 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 32 to 46 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 32 to 46 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 28, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 5.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 5.2 °C, the absolute minimum -2.7 °C, 2 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 11.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells 6.9 °C to 16.7 °C), warmest day 28.9 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 53 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 24 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Apr; mean night from 11 °C in Jan to 16 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 766 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 385 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -2.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost36.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-2.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 32–46RH 53–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 385 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C24 / 20–2826 / 22–2928 / 24–3229 / 25–3328 / 24–3326 / 22–3025 / 21–2926 / 22–2925 / 21–2925 / 21–2924 / 21–2924 / 20–28
Night °C11 / 7–1712 / 8–1713 / 9–1814 / 11–2016 / 12–2116 / 12–2115 / 11–2115 / 12–2116 / 12–2115 / 11–2013 / 9–1812 / 8–17
Rain mm10 / 4–379 / 6–3010 / 5–2722 / 10–5261 / 30–106150 / 103–247141 / 84–239136 / 83–244143 / 92–25862 / 41–12715 / 8–477 / 4–32
DLI33 / 29–3538 / 34–4044 / 39–4546 / 41–4844 / 39–4638 / 33–4039 / 34–4238 / 34–4135 / 30–3734 / 31–3633 / 30–3532 / 28–34
RH %55 / 48–6454 / 47–6353 / 44–6253 / 45–6157 / 49–6361 / 57–6762 / 56–6762 / 57–6763 / 59–6961 / 56–6758 / 51–6556 / 49–64

Each figure is the median across the 385 grid cells holding the 792 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1435:1653 (18.225, -97.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -2.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 385 distinct grid cells holding the 792 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1435:1653 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 18.00_-97.500, lapse-corrected -515 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1480 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker18.149, -97.386 · in the densest population, 547 records (67% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 812 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 365 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 9 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 20 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 812 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ipomoea paucifloraIpomoea paucifloraIpomoea paucifloraIpomoea paucifloraIpomoea paucifloraIpomoea paucifloraIpomoea paucifloraIpomoea pauciflora

Photographs: (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Oscar Alejandro Morales Juárez, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Brodie Cass Talbott, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0.

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Ipomoea pauciflora, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Recovering More than Tree Cover: Herbivores and Herbivory in a Restored Tropical Dry Forest
Iris Juan-Baeza, Cristina Martínez‐Garza, Ek del‐Val (2015) · PLoS ONE
Branch mortality influences phorophyte quality for vascular epiphytes
Beatriz Olivia Cortés-Anzúres, Angélica María Corona‐López, Víctor Hugo Toledo‐Hernández, Susana Valencia-Díaz (2017) · Botany
Estado de conservación de los bosques secos de la provincia de Loja, Ecuador
Zhofre Aguirre Mendoza, Gretel Geada López (2017) · Arnaldoa
Lowering the density: ants associated with the myrmecophyteTillandsia caput-medusaediminish the establishment of epiphytes
Carmen Agglael Vergara-Torres, Cecilia Díaz‐Castelazo, Víctor Hugo Toledo‐Hernández, Alejandro Flores‐Palacios (2021) · AoB Plants
Differential herbivory and successional status in five tropical tree species
Néstor A. Mariano, Cristina Martínez‐Garza, Raúl E. Alcalá (2018) · Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad
Bark peeling does not explain the distribution of epiphytes between six phorophyte species of a tropical dry forest of Mexico
Roberto F. Jiménez-Salmerón, Susana Valencia-Díaz, Víctor Hugo Toledo‐Hernández, Alejandro Flores‐Palacios (2017) · Plant Ecology and Evolution
Biological activity of Ipomoea pauciflora Martens and Galeotti ( Convolvulaceae ) extracts and fractions on larvae of Spodoptera frugiperda J. E. Smith (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)
Guzmán-Pantoja Ludmila Elisa, Patricia Guevara-Fefer, Villarreal-Ortega María Luisa, Aranda-Escobar Eduardo (2010) · AFRICAN JOURNAL OF BIOTECHNOLOGY
Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam. Ipomoea pauciflora M. Martens & Galeotti Convolvulaceae
Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana, Rainer W. Bussmann, Carolina Romero (2020) · Ethnobotany of mountain regions
VEGETATIVE PROPAGATION OF THREE TREE SPECIES WITH CULTURAL AND ECOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE FROM THE TROPICAL DRY FOREST
Nayely Vianey García-García, Alejandro Flores‐Palacios, Susana Valencia-Díaz, Aucencia Emeterio-Lara (2022) · Agrociencia
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Ipomoea 12 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 50 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.