Convolvulus L.

Bindweed

Latin convolvere — to twine.

Annual or perennial scrambling or twining herbs and shrubs, sometimes woody and/or with a milky latex. Leaves entire. Flowers in axillary or terminal clusters, sometimes solitary, with small leafy bracts that do not enclose the calyx. Corolla funnel-shaped, the mid-petal line often a different colour. Stigma with linear, thread-like or club-shaped lobes. Fruit a dry capsule containing mostly 4 seeds.

A number of species have become difficult weeds to eradicate.

C. arvensis L. is a widespread invasive Eurasian weed with white or pink funnel-shaped, scented flowers to 2.5 cm long; C. cantabrica L. is a perennial from S Europe with stalkless leaves and pink flowers; C. erubescens Sims, Pink Bindweed (Blushing Bindweed), is native to all states and has toothed, lobed or divided leaves; C. floridus L. f. from the Canary Islands is a woody shrub or climber with leaves to over 10 cm long and flowers to about 1 cm wide in many-flowered terminal clusters, white or pale pink.

Seeds, softwood cuttings and sometimes layers of woody species, and division.

C. floridus has roots that are the source of an essential oil; C. scammonia, Scammony, is the source of a purgative medicine.

Mostly twining plants or small shrubs with linear to oblong stigmas and bracts that are smaller than the sepals.

About 100 species, cosmopolitan but mostly temperate.

Source: Spencer, R. (2002). Convolvulaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 4. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 3. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.

Hero image
kingdom Plantae
phylum   Tracheophyta
class    Magnoliopsida
superorder     Asteranae
order      Solanales
family       Convolvulaceae
Higher taxa
Subordinate taxa
species         Convolvulus cneorum L.
species         Convolvulus sabatius Viv.