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Summary

Distimake aegyptius, the Egyptian woodrose or hairy wood-rose and other names, is a plant in the family Convolvulaceae. Typical of the family, it is an herbaceous or somewhat woody, perennial, and creeping or twining vine.

Description

A good field mark distinguishing the Egyptian Woodrose from many other morning glory species is its stems' conspicuously long, yellowish, stiff hairs. The compound leaves, consisting of 3-7 leaflets radiating outward from a single point atop of the petiole, bear hairs which lie close to both sides of the leaflets. The leaflets are up to 9cm long (~3½ inches) and 5cm wide (~2 inches). Leaflet margins can bear low teeth, or not.

Inflorescences usually bear only two or three flowers atop hairy peduncles up to 20cm long (~8 inches). The flowers' sepals are of two kinds: The ones closest to the corolla are shorter, hairless or only weakly hairy, and rounded at their tips, while the outer ones are longer, sharp-pointed, with stiff hairs, and their surfaces may be covered with small, nipple-shaped or rounded projections called papillae. The corollas are white, bell-shaped and hairless, up to 3cm long (~1 inch). The hairless capsule-type fruits are more or less spherical, sometimes somewhat quadrangular, and usually produce only one to four, but up to six relatively large, black, hairless seeds a bit triangular in cross section.

Distribution

The iNaturalist map showing locations of observations of Merremia aegyptia indicate that the species occurs nearly throughout the world's tropics, except the drier and high elevation parts, so not in Egypt.

Habitat

Distimake aegyptius grows in disturbed, or "anthropized", environments.

Human uses

Distimake aegyptius is grown as an ornamental and its stems can be used to tie things together. Some livestock graze on the plant, but horses don't. If small livestock eat large quantities, they get diarrhea. In Nigeria the dried leaves are used as a dressing for burns.

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