Wild Flowers East of the Rockies 281 



CONVOLVULUS FAMILY (Convolvulaceae). 



A small family of climbing or twining herbs having 

 regular, perfect, usually bell or funnel-shaped flowers 

 and alternating leaves. 



HEDGE BINDWEED; WILD MORNING GLORY 

 (Convolvulus sepium) climbs gracefully over walls, 

 through thickets or twines its stem tightly about 

 those of other plants or shrubs. Its embrace is some- 

 times so ardent that it causes suffocation and death 

 to the plant to which it attaches itself. The stem is 

 smooth, rarely slightly hairy, and grows to lengths 

 of from 3 to 10 feet. 



The leaves are triangular or slightly arrow-shaped 

 on long petioles. The large funnel-shaped blossoms 

 grow singly on slender peduncles from the axils of 

 the leaves. They are pink with white stripes and 

 a flaring mouth; the calyx consists of five sepals that 

 are concealed by two large bracts at the base. The 

 flowers remair open only during sunshine and occas- 

 sionally on bright moonlight nights. At the base of 

 the corolla are five tubes leading to the supply of nec- 

 tar. Only long tongued bees, butterflies or moths are 

 able to reach the sweets, to which they are guided 

 by the white stripes on the inside of the tube. It 

 is very commonly found in moist ground along road- 

 sides or the borders of woods or thickets, through- 

 out our range and also in Europe. 



COMMON DODDER (Cuscuta Gronovii) is a very 

 common little parasitic plant found in moist shady 

 thickets or among the shrubs and plants bordering 

 ponds or streams. It germinates its seeds in the 

 ground and the slender stem rises until it comes in 

 contact with some living plant, when the root dies 

 and the dodder gets its nourishment from its 

 host by means of numerous little suckers. It has 

 no leaves; the stem is orange and the clusters of 

 minute bell-shaped flowers are white. 



