• Family : CONVOLVULACEAE
  (Morning-Glory Family)
• Family (Hindi name) : KALADANA FAMILY (कालादाना फैमिली)
• Family (as per The APG System III) : CONVOLVULACEAE
• Synonym(s) : Ipomoea bona-nox L.
• Species Name (as per The Plant List) : Ipomoea alba L.
• Common name : Moonflower, Koali-pehu
• Vernacular name : Naganamukkorai (Tamil); Nagaramukkatte, Panditivankaya (Telugu); Kunja-lata (Oria); Chandrakanthi, Mandavalli (Malayalam)
• Habit : Liana
• Habitat : Moist deciduous forests, also along sea coasts
• Comments / notes : On hills above 800m, also cultivated
• Key identification features : Flowers open at night and close at 11 am
• Flower, Fruit : September-February
• Distribution :
  • Andhra Pradesh : East Godavari district, Vishakapatnam district
  • Kerala : Kannur district, Wayanad district, Malappuram district, Palakkad district, Thrissur district, Idukki district, Alappuzha district, Pathanamthitta district, Kollam district
  • Odisha : Ganjam district, Koraput district
  • Tamil Nadu : Dindigul district, Coimbatore district
• Native : Tropical America
• World Distribution : Naturalized in tropics
• Conservation Status : Not Evaluated (NE)
• Literature : Pullaiah et al., 2011 - Flora of Eastern Ghats Vol. 4; H.O. Saxena & M. Brahmam, 1995- Flora of Orissa Vol. 2; Matthew, K.M., The Flora of Tamil Nadu Carnatic, Vol.3 (1). Diocesan Press, Madras. 1983; Sasidharan, N. 2011. Flowering plants of Kerala. DVD, V 2, KFRI.
• Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Raja K Swamy, Deepak Kumar, Arun Singh R. and K. Gopalakrishna Bhat (2019). Flora of Peninsular India. http://peninsula.ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Ipomoea alba. Downloaded on 3 April 2025.

Botanical Description

Herbarium Specimen(s)

Field Image(s)