GREAT BINDWEED 



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do not close up when it is raining, though they contain honey. They 

 close between 8 and 10 p.m., but are open when it is a moonlight 

 night. The floral mechanism is as in C. arvensis. The honey is in 

 a yellow ring at the base of the ovary. The style is twisted, as in 

 some plants where the flowers are pollinated by crepuscular insects. 

 It is visited by the Convolvulus Hawk Moth (Sphinx convolvuli), 

 which has been found on 

 the flowers in the evening. 

 The ovary does not bend 

 over after flowering, being- 

 protected by the large leaf- 

 like organs or bracts. 



Halictus, Megachile, 

 Empis, Rhingia, creep 

 into the base of the 

 flower by day, and insert 

 their probosces between 

 slits between the filaments 

 or anther stalks. Rhingia 

 rostrata applies its labellse 

 to the anthers, stigma, 

 and corolla wall. Meli- 

 gethes, Thrips, Podura, 

 visit it by clay. Wher- 

 ever the Convolvulus 

 Hawk Moth (Sphinx con- 

 volvuli) is common so is 

 C. sepium. If the former 

 is absent the latter may 

 not produce seed at all. 



The capsule splits open when ripe, the seeds being scattered around 

 the parent plant. 



Great Bindweed is a sand-loving plant growing mainly on sand 

 soil, or sandy soil or sandy loam with a little humus. 



Three fungi, Cystopiis tragopogonis, Puccinia convolvuli, and Theca- 

 phora hyalina, infest it, and the latter destroys the seeds. 



A beetle Longitarsiis exoletus, and several moths, the Convolvulus 

 Hawk Moth (Sphinx convolvuli'}, Small Scallop (Acidalia emarginatd], 

 the Double-striped Pug (Eupithecia pumilata), Pterophorus penta- 

 dactylus, Emmelesia trabealis, Spotted Sulphur (Agrophila sulphuralis\ 

 the Four-spotted (Acontia hiduosa), Small Mottled Willow (Caradrina 



GREAT BINDWEED (Con-volvulus sepium, Br.) 



