TURBINA HOLUBII

This member of the Convolvulaceae family has been named by Adrianus Dirk Jacob Meeuse in 1958. It's from southern Africa, where it grows in well-drained grit, and get a lots of water and sun in the growing-session. The flowers are pink. The seeds are poison, but who will eat them? The caudex can grow to eighteen centimetres in diameter, the branches will lay flat on the ground and reach 80 centimetres or more.

The genera name from Latin turbino; 'spinning' as the fruits bear a faint resemblance to a spinning-top. The species name after Emil Holub, a 19th century European naturalist and explorer in Africa. 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. In the wild, it will crawl flat on the surface.