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Ipomoea costata; photograph Em Lamond, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYEm Lamond, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Ipomoea costata F.Muell. ex Benth.

Australian bush potato; Bush potato; Rock morning glory

Convolvulaceae · Northern Territory, Queensland +1

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Ipomoea costata, photograph Em Lamond, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFIpomoea costata, photograph Em Lamond, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFIpomoea costata, photograph Em Lamond, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFIpomoea costata, photograph Em Lamond, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFIpomoea costata, photograph Belinda Forbes, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFIpomoea costata, photograph Belinda Forbes, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 12 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
6.2°C
Record low 2.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
37°C
Jan and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
375mm
5 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
28–49DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June to September (December to March at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Ipomoea costata, commonly known as rock morning glory, is an Australian native plant. It is found in northern Australia, from Western Australia, through the Northern Territory, to Queensland. Its tubers provide a form of bush tucker to some Aboriginal peoples, known as bush potato, or (to the Ngururrpa groups in WA), karnti.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ipomoea costata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Ipomoea

Ipomoea is the largest genus in the plant family Convolvulaceae, with over 600 species. It is a large and diverse group, with common names including morning glory, water Convolvulus or water spinach, sweet potato, bindweed, moonflower, etc. The genus occurs throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, and comprises annual and perennial herbaceous plants, lianas, shrubs, and small trees; most of the species are twining climbing plants.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ipomoea", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (279 mm of 384 mm) falls in December to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 30.1 °C against a yearly mean of 25.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: June to September.

Rain

384 mm in the median year at the habitat, 279 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 88 mm, driest month August at 2 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 267 mm to 851 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 375 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 384 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 49 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 26, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 6.2 °C, the absolute minimum 2.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 11.9 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 8.7 °C to 17.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 36.9 °C in December (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 6.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 38 to 50% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +7 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Ipomoea costata through the yearWarmest months January and December, mean daily high 37 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 11.9 °C; 384 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°43.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER2.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 28–49RH 38–50%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 173 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C37 / 32–3736 / 32–3635 / 32–3632 / 30–3427 / 26–3124 / 22–2924 / 22–2927 / 24–3131 / 25–3535 / 28–3736 / 29–3837 / 30–38
Night °C25 / 24–2725 / 24–2623 / 22–2621 / 18–2417 / 14–2113 / 10–1812 / 9–1714 / 11–1818 / 15–2122 / 19–2424 / 21–2625 / 23–26
Rain mm88 / 34–21987 / 54–21245 / 29–12817 / 14–2813 / 7–267 / 4–337 / 2–162 / 0–66 / 2–1018 / 1–2435 / 2–6659 / 11–144
DLI46 / 40–5044 / 37–4641 / 38–4237 / 36–3831 / 30–3428 / 26–3130 / 28–3336 / 34–3842 / 41–4346 / 45–5049 / 46–5347 / 43–52
RH %49 / 44–6250 / 46–6346 / 43–5943 / 41–5545 / 42–5347 / 43–5344 / 41–5241 / 38–5138 / 37–5339 / 38–5542 / 40–5746 / 43–60
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 173 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (282 records in those cells; 4 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2192:6278 (-19.625, 133.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 2.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 173 distinct grid cells holding 282 of the 287 in-range records (4 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2192:6278 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -19.50_133.750, lapse-corrected +7 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 314 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNorthern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-20.943, 134.193 · in the densest population, 144 records (34% of those in range)
Kew's description“climber” · “desert or dry shrubland” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 427 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 282 of them in the land cells it reads, of 287 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 392 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 140 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 427 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Ipomoea costata, photograph 1did not loadIpomoea costata, photograph 2did not loadIpomoea costata, photograph 3did not loadIpomoea costata, photograph 4did not loadIpomoea costata, photograph 5did not loadIpomoea costata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Em Lamond, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (4); Belinda Forbes, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Sphaeranthus indicus Sphaeranthus indicus East Indian globe thistle Photo: CC BY, nirjesh gautamEucalyptus odontocarpa Eucalyptus odontocarpa Sturt Creek Mallee Photo: CC BY, maxarkGrevillea wickhamii Grevillea wickhamii Wickham's Grevillea Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandHakea macrocarpa Hakea macrocarpa Proteaceae Photo: CC BY, Michael HainsAcacia cowleana Acacia cowleana Halls Creek wattle Photo: CC BY, Tyler AnthonyEucalyptus victrix Eucalyptus victrix Coolibah Photo: CC BY, Tyler Anthony

Other Ipomoea 106 in the reference

Ipomoea aitonii Convolvulaceae Ipomoea alba Ipomoea alba Moonflower Photo: CC BY, Brandon CorderIpomoea albivenia Ipomoea albivenia Climbing Kapok Photo: CC0, author not statedIpomoea amnicola Ipomoea amnicola Redcenter morning-glory Photo: CC0, author not statedIpomoea anisomeres Ipomoea anisomeres Convolvulaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezIpomoea aquatica Ipomoea aquatica Swamp morning-glory Photo: CC BY, renjus boxIpomoea arborescens Ipomoea arborescens Tree Morning Glory Photo: CC BY-SA, Adrian BojorquezIpomoea asarifolia Ipomoea asarifolia Ginger-leaf morning-glory Photo: CC BY, Marcello Mastroianni Albuquerque AraújoIpomoea bahiensis Ipomoea bahiensis Convolvulaceae Photo: CC BY, Paulo NogueiraIpomoea batatas Ipomoea batatas Sweet potato Photo: CC BY, winterfamilyIpomoea biflora Ipomoea biflora Bellvine Photo: CC BY, 如此甚好Ipomoea bolusiana Ipomoea bolusiana Narrowleaf Morning Glory Photo: CC0, dune_ninja all 107 ›

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Convolvulaceae
Described by
F.Muell. ex Benth.
Native to
Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia
Wild records
427 in range · 392 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -19.50_133.750, lapse-corrected +7 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 20 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…