Convolvulus
Encyclopedia
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
s in the bindweed
Bindweed
Bindweed may refer to:* Convolvulaceae , a family including about 60 genera and more than 1,650 species** Calystegia , a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants...
family Convolvulaceae
Convolvulaceae
Convolvulaceae, known commonly as the bindweed or morning glory family, are a group of about 60 genera and more than 1,650 species of mostly herbaceous vines, but also trees, shrubs and herbs.- Description :...
, with a cosmopolitan distribution
Cosmopolitan distribution
In biogeography, a taxon is said to have a cosmopolitan distribution if its range extends across all or most of the world in appropriate habitats. For instance, the killer whale has a cosmopolitan distribution, extending over most of the world's oceans. Other examples include humans, the lichen...
. Common names include bindweed
Bindweed
Bindweed may refer to:* Convolvulaceae , a family including about 60 genera and more than 1,650 species** Calystegia , a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants...
and morning glory
Morning glory
Morning glory is a common name for over 1,000 species of flowering plants in the family Convolvulaceae, whose current taxonomy and systematics is in flux...
, both names shared with other closely related genera
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
.
They are annual
Annual plant
An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed...
or perennial
Perennial plant
A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...
herbaceous
Herbaceous
A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaves and stems that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. They have no persistent woody stem above ground...
vine
Vine
A vine in the narrowest sense is the grapevine , but more generally it can refer to any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent, that is to say climbing, stems or runners...
s, bines
Bine (botany)
A bine is a climbing plant which climbs by its shoots growing in a helix around a support. It is distinct from a vine, which climbs using tendrils or suckers.The stems of many bines are rough or have downward-pointing bristles to aid their grip....
and (a few species of) woody shrub
Shrub
A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...
s, growing to 0.3-3 m tall. The leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
are spirally arranged, and the flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s trumpet-shaped, mostly white or pink, but blue, violet, purple or yellow in some species.
Many of the species are problematic weed
Weed
A weed in a general sense is a plant that is considered by the user of the term to be a nuisance, and normally applied to unwanted plants in human-controlled settings, especially farm fields and gardens, but also lawns, parks, woods, and other areas. More specifically, the term is often used to...
s, which can swamp other more valuable plants by climbing over them, but some are also deliberately grown for their attractive flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s. However, some other species are globally threatened.
This species occurs in many temperate regions. They are mostly slender, creeping winding vines. A few are small perennials. They have simple, alternate leaves and wide funnel-shaped flowers.
Convolvulus species are used as food plants by the larva
Larva
A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...
e of some Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...
species including the leaf-miner Bucculatrix cantabricella (feeds exclusively on Convolvulus cantabricus), Bedellia annuligera (recorded on Convolvulus arvensis), Bedellia somnulentella
Bedellia somnulentella
The Sweet Potato Leaf Miner is a moth in the Bedelliidae family. It has a nearly cosmopolitan distribution and has been recorded from Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, southern Kazakhstan, Kirgizia, Uzbekistan, nearly all of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Japan, North America, Australia, New...
and Orthonama obstipata (The Gem).
Selected species
- Convolvulus althaeoidesConvolvulus althaeoidesConvolvulus althaeoides is a species of morning glory known by the common name mallow bindweed. This flowering plant is native to the Mediterranean Basin, but it is occasionally seen in other areas of similar climate, such as California in the United States, where it has been introduced. This is a...
– Mallow Bindweed, Riviera Bindweed - Convolvulus angustissimus
- Convolvulus arvensisConvolvulus arvensisConvolvulus arvensis is a species of bindweed, native to Europe and Asia. It is a climbing or creeping herbaceous perennial plant growing to 0.5–2 m high. The leaves are spirally arranged, linear to arrowhead-shaped, 2–5 cm long and alternate, with a 1–3 cm petiole...
– Lesser Bindweed, Field bindweed - Convolvulus assyricus
- Convolvulus boissieri
- Convolvulus calvertii
- Convolvulus calycina
- Convulvulus canariensis
- Convolvulus cantabricaConvolvulus cantabricaConvolvulus cantabrica, common name Cantabrican Morning Glory or Dwarf morning glory, is a herbaceous perennial plant belonging to the genus Convolvulus of the Convolvulaceae family.-Description:...
- Convolvulus capensis
- Convolvulus carrii
- Convolvulus cataonnicus
- Convolvulus chilensis
- Convolvulus cneorumConvolvulus cneorumConvolvulus cneorum, also known as Silverbush, is a species of bindweed, native to Europe.Unlike many of the other species in the genus, it is a shrub rather than a vine, forming a low mound between 0.6 and 1.2 metres in height, with a similar spread. It produces 2.5 to 4 cm diameter flowers which...
– Shrubby Bindweed, Silvery Bindweed, Silverbush - Convolvulus compactus
- Convolvulus dorycnium
- Convolvulus equitans – Gray Bindweed, Texas Bindweed
- Convolvulus erubescens
- Convolvulus eyreanus
- Convolvulus floridus
- Convolvulus fractosaxosa
- Convolvulus graminetinus
- Convolvulus hermanniae
- Convolvulus holosericeus
- Convolvulus humilis
- Convolvulus incanus
- Convolvulus ipomoeeae – Morning Glory, Moonflower
- Convolvulus lineatus – Pygmy Bindweed
- Convolvulus minorConvolvulus tricolorConvolvulus tricolor , is a species of morning glory known by the common name Dwarf Morning Glory.- Description :It is a short to medium annual plant with solitary long-stalked flowers. The flower is a tri-coloured funnel-shaped bloom about three centimeters wide, blue with white and a yellow centre...
syn. C. tricolor - Dwarf morning glory - Convolvulus nodiflorus – Aguinaldo Blanco
- Convolvulus ocellatus
- Convolvulus nyctagineus
- Convolvulus oleifolius
- Convolvulus pentapetaloides
- Convolvulus persicus
- Convolvulus phrygius
- Convolvulus pilosellifolius – Soft Bindweed
- Convolvulus remotus
- Convolvulus sabatiusConvolvulus sabatiusConvolvulus sabatius is a perennial plant species, native to Italy and North Africa, and often seen in cultivation. It is a woody-stemmed trailing plant, growing to 20 cm in height...
– Blue Rock Bindweed - Convolvulus scammonia – Scammony
- Convolvulus secundus - http://flora.huji.ac.il/browse.asp?lang=en&action=specie&specie=CONSEC
- Convolvulus scoparius
- Convolvulus siculus
- Convolvulus suffruticosus
- Convolvulus tricolorConvolvulus tricolorConvolvulus tricolor , is a species of morning glory known by the common name Dwarf Morning Glory.- Description :It is a short to medium annual plant with solitary long-stalked flowers. The flower is a tri-coloured funnel-shaped bloom about three centimeters wide, blue with white and a yellow centre...
– Dwarf Convolvulus, Dwarf Morning Glory - Convolvulus valentinus
- Convolvulus verecundus
- Convolvulus waitaha
- Convolvulus wallichianus – Wallich's Bindweed