Europeans discovered I. aquatica in a variety of places in
the Old World when they first arrived there. The first record
was from the Malabar Coast of India when Rheede
(1692) recorded it as Ballel (Table 1, Appendix 1).
About the same time (1660-1690s) in eastern Indonesia,
Rumphius (1741-1750) called the herb Olus-vagum.
Linnaeus (1753) cited the Rheede name under Convolvulus
reptans, but the epithet cannot be used because
of a typification problem (Merrill 1917, 1939, van Ooststroom
1940, Verdcourt 1963). In spite of that complication,
authors for many years incorrectly used I. reptans
(L.) Poiret and information on the plants will appear under
that name, particularly in older references. Another name
that partly applies to this species is Convolvulus sagittaefolia
Burman f. (1768), but that cannot be used either.
Forsskåll (1775) finally discovered the plants in Yemen
and proposed the name now used, I. aquatica. An oddity
about Forsskåll’s discovery is that he reported the herb
from a desert area where the species presumably is not
native. The horn of Africa and nearby Asia is mostly too