CONVOLVULUS FAMILY 



CONVOLVULACEAE 



FIELD BINDWEED 



Con'volvulus awensis 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 1 small bracts some dis- 

 tance below the flower. The small 5-lobed 

 calyx is green and the funnelform corolla 

 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, Convolvulus spitharnaeus 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-halt inch to 1 12 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. 



J50 



