DESCRIPTION AND REPRODUCTION: The only morning glory vine with large, blue flowers in Florida scrub vegetation (Wunderlin et al. 1980), Florida Bonamia is a perennial with sturdy prostrate stems about
a meter (3 feet) long. The leathery oval or ovate leaves, up to about 4 centimeters (1.6 inches) long, are either upright or spreading. The flowers are solitary in the leaf axils. The funnel-shaped corolla is 7 to10
centimeters (2.7 to 3.9 inches) long and 7 to 8 centimeters (2.7 to 3.1 inches) across, pale but bluish purple with a white throat, similar to the cultivated "Heavenly Blue" morning glory. The fruit is a capsule.
RANGE AND POPULATION LEVEL: Florida Bonamia is endemic to the peninsula where most of its known populations exist in the Ocala National Forest, Marion County. It also occurs south of the forest in Polk,
Orange, Highlands, Hillsborough, and Hardee Counties. It was relocated in Lake County south of Lakes Minnehaha and Susan (1 site) and in Manatee County. The historic range of Florida Bonamia was from central
Highlands County northward through northwestern Osceola, western Orange, Lake, eastern Marion, and northwestern Volusia Counties on ridges and uplands of the central peninsula. Collections of the plant were
made in Sarasota, Manatee, and Volusia Counties in 1878, 1916, and 1900, respectively (Wunderlin et al. 1980). The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (1998) reported that the largest population of this
species at Lake Louisa State Park in Clermont appears to be increasing in number and spreading out across the site.