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Turbina oblongata

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Photo by
Marc Altenloh.


Photo from Wildflowernursery.co.za
.

Author: Adrianus Dirk Jacob Meeuse, 1958
Family:  CONVOLVULACEAE
Origin:  Botswana, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe
Soil:  Grit
Water:  Medium
Sun:  Maximum
Thickness:  12 Centimetres
Height:  30 Centimetres
Flower:  Pink
Propagate:  Seeds/Cuttings
Names:  Zulu: Ubhoqo
Synonyms:  Ipomoea oblongata, Ernst Heinrich Friedrich Meyer ex Jacques Denys Choisy.
Convolvulus oblongatus, Kuntze.
Ipomoea atherstonei,
Baker.
Ipomoea lambtoniana,
Alfred Barton Rendle, 1901.
Ipomoea randii,
Alfred Barton Rendle, 1901.
Ipomoea seineri,
Pilg.

This member of the Convolvulaceae family has been named by Adrianus Dirk Jacob Meeuse in 1958. It's from southern Africa and Ethiopia, where it grows in well-drained grit, and get some water and lots of sun in the growing-session. The flowers are pink. The caudex can grow to twelve centimetres in diameter, the vines grow to 30 centimetres.

The genera name from Latin turbino; 'spinning' as the fruits bear a faint resemblance to a spinning-top. The species name means 'oblong-shaped' - or 'oval', like the leaves.

Ronald Kushner writes: The seedpods of all Turbina are distinguished by having leathery (!) seedpods, and although some Ipomoea may (!) have 'leathery type'  pods, very leathery pods are a major feature of the genus Turbina.