Water morning glory (Ipomoea aquatica)

Kangkong or water spinach or water morning glory (Ipomoea aquatica) is a plant species in Convolvulaceae that spreads in watery areas or soft soil, hollow stems to float, including cultivated plants for vegetables with leaves and stems as food.

I. aquatica has tubular stems, 2-3 meters long or more, hollow to float, green in color and roots in the fork. Leaves vary in shape from arrowhead to lanceolate, 5-15 cm long, 2-8 cm wide and green.

Trumpet-shaped flowers, 3-5 cm in diameter and completely white or light purple in the middle. Propagation using shoot cutting techniques that will take root along the internodes or plant seeds from flowers that produce seed pods.

Cultivated water spinach has three cultivar groups. The Lowland group grows wild in shallow swamps and abandoned rice fields. The Alba group grows on land, leaves narrower and is more adaptive to dry land. The Rubra group has red or purple leaves and flowers, the leaves are rather broad and adaptive to dry land.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Solanales
Family: Convolvulaceae
Tribe: Ipomoeeae
Genus: Ipomoea
Species: Ipomoea aquatica

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