Ipomoea aequatoriensis

About

Ipomoea aequatoriensis is a morning glory plant which was first scientifically described in 2022, and is the closest wild relative to the sweet potato known to science. The evolution of the sweet potato has always been a mystery, however with the discovery of this new plant, the history has become a bit clearer. The newly found plant was discovered by an Oxford University team of researchers led by Dr. Pablo Muńoz-Rodríguez. The plant was "stumbled upon" when the team was looking at herbarium specimens that had been collected of the plant Ipomoea batatas when researchers realized that one of the collected specimens differed in sepals and other characteristics.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA