CONVOLVULUS FAMILY CONVOLVULACEAE 
FIELD BINDWEED 
Convolvulus arvensis L. 
The Field Bindweed seems to have come originally from 
Asia. It traveled first to western Europe and then across the 
Atlantic to this continent, where it is now common in fields 
and waste places 
nearly throughout. 
The very slender 
stems are 1-3 feet long 
and smooth or nearly 
so. They creep or 
trail over the ground 
and low plants, and 
may twine to a cer- 
tain extent. The ovate 
or oblong leaves are 
slender petioled, en- 
tire, either obtuse and 
with a small sharp tip 
or acutish at the apex, 
sagittate or somewhat 
hastate at the base, the acute basal lobes 
spreading, and are 1-2 inches long. 
The flowers are produced from May 
to September, usually singly on axillary 
peduncles having 2 small bracts some dis- 
tance below the flower. The small 5-lobed 
calyx is green and the funnelform corolla 
Cc is white or sometimes pinkish. The 5 
stamens are inserted on the corolla tube 
and do not extend beyond it. The 2 linear 
stigmas topping the slender style and single ovary extend beyond 
the anthers. The capsule fruit has usually 4 smooth seeds. 
The Low or Upright Bindweed, Convoloulus spithamaeus L., 
occurs locally throughout Illinois on dry sandy or rocky soil. The 
downy stem is upright or drooping, 6-12 inches high, but does not 
twine. Leaves are 1-2 inches long and from one-half inch to 1% inches 
wide, short petioled or the uppermost sessile, usually obtuse at both 
ends or acutish at apex and subcordate at the base. The large white 
flowers bloom 1-3 at a time in the leaf axils. 
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