Ipomoea aquatica Forssk.

Code

IPOAQ

Growth form

Creeper

Biological cycle

Vivacious

Habitat

Marshland

Mayotte: Ipomoea aquatica flowers from May to July.

 Ipomoea aquatica is a vivacious species that grows, flowers and fruits throughout the year.

A common aquatic weed of poorly drained soils, often found in rice paddies throughout West Africa. Ipomoea aquatica occurs on swampy ground and in stagnant water in all the East African countries up to an altitude of 1200 m.

Ipomoea aquatica is an aquatic species that grows in small rivers and permanent ponds or in very humid or temporarily flooded lowlands.

Northern Cameroon: Ipomoea aquatica grows on hydromorphic or temporarily flooded vertic soils and along rivers and ponds. It can behave as a weed in crops in very humid lowland areas.
Madagascar: I. aquatica grows on waterlogged soils, alluvial wet soils at the edge of marshes, ponds, canals and rivers. It is a weed of flooded rice fields in plains and low-lying slums. It enjoys fertile soils in sunny humid or more or less shaded areas, in irrigated rice systems, semi-intensive (without fertilization), in humid agro-ecological zone, sub-humid and semi-arid up to 800 m altitude.
Mayotte: I. aquatica is an indigenous species that grows in the hygrophilic region on hydromorphic soils. It is sometimes cultivated. Because of the decline of wetlands in Mayotte, this species is considered threatened.

Global harmfulness

Ipomoea aquatica is a common weed in rice paddies or cultivated plots along flooded area.

Food: Young shoots and leaves of Ipomoea aquatica are collected for use as a leafy vegetable. Often the whole above-ground plants part of cultivated I. aquatica, including the tender hollow stems, is consumed. I. aquatica can be stir-fried, steamed, boiled for a few minutes or lightly fried in oil and eaten in various dishes, it is often mixed with hot peppers and garlic, and prepared with meat or fish. In Asia the leaves are sometimes separated from stems, and the stems are cooked a bit longer. In Africa only the leaves of wild plants are consumed. The roots are occasionally eaten. In Indonesia, I. aquatica is traditionally given at dinner to young children to make them quiet and help them to sleep well.
Animal feed: Wild I. aquatica is often collected as feed for cattle and pigs. 
Medicinal: In Asia it is used in traditional medicine. The sap is used as anemetic, purgative and sedative, and flower buds are applied to ringworm. The leaves are used in cataplasm to relieve burns.

Global management
 
Management recommandations for vivacious broad-leaved weeds in rice fields: http://portal.wiktrop.org/document/show/26

Local management
 
Madagascar: In irrigated rice, Ipomoea aquatic is controlled with the usual methods of control (manual weeding, rotary hoe or with post-emergence herbicides against broadleaf weeds: 2,4-D, etc.).
Tanzania: Few observations on a control of Ipomoea aquatica have been recorded in Tanzania but it is has been noted that, because of the presence of submerged stems and leaves, this weed increases in density following the use of such herbicides as propanil or bentazon in rice. Some control appears to be possible with oxadiazon.
 

Herbarium pictures ReCOLNAT: https://explore.recolnat.org/search/botanique/simplequery=Ipomoea%2520aquatica