A SECOND OHIO WEED MANUAL. 



347 



may happen to be near. Underground it lias extensive stems, any piece of 

 which may start a new plant, and by this means it spreads year by year or is 

 scattered by cultivating- through the infested patches. Introduced from Europe 

 and frequent along railroads, it is also found in gardens and fields where it 

 is difficult to limit its spread. 



Seeds dark, somewhat angular, 1-12 of an inch long. See drawing, after 

 Nobbe, x6, Fig. 43d. The eradication of the field bindweed is a very difficult 

 task, yet as with Canada thistle, nothing short of eradication, when found in 

 small areas, will serve the purposes of the land owner. A friend who had his 

 garden infested tried digging it up and then smothering with straw, but with- 

 out success. A liberal use of hoe and salt would seem the best means of 

 destroying it. True, other vegetation will chiefly be destroyed but this may be 

 endured for a time if the bindweed is also exterminated. The work should 

 begin on the outer fringes of the patches and let nothing escape there. The 

 infected spots should not be cultivated with the surrounding land because of 

 dragging the roots on the plow and tools. Alfalfa seeding and cutting may 

 prove successful, as noted in next. 



238 Bindweed, Hedge Bindweed, Morning=glory (P) Convolvulus sepium 

 (L.) Willd. The bindweed or bracted-bindweed is a native pest, almost equal- 

 ling the preceding, but with perhaps, more limit by nature as to soil. It has 

 long, twining stems, and triangular, halberd-shaped, or arrow-shaped pointed 

 leaves with large white or rose colored, funnel-form blossoms, see Fig. 44. In 

 addition to these it has very numerous, creeping, underground stems which 

 possess all the persistent characters of those of the preceding. This weed is 

 more common in bottom lands where, in corn, it is erroneously called peavine; 

 it is also found in moist fields generally. 



Seeds dark, somewhat angular-kidney-form, 1-8 

 inch across. The bracted bindweed is permitted to 

 remain in some bottom lands cu tivated continuously 

 in corn. Certainly the continuous cultivation is a 

 favorable opportunity to kill it out if followed by the 

 free use of the hoe in summer and fall. So long as 

 the weed is permitted by late growth thus to recover 

 from the annual shock, it will continue to flourish. 

 Reports of those who have seeded such infested land 

 to alfalfa, show that the repeated cutting of the 

 alfalfa will soon destroy the bindweed, so that it 

 does not reappear on replowing. 



DODDER FAMILY, CUSCUTACE^E. 



239 Flax Dodder (A) *Cu scuta Epilinutn Weihe. 

 ¥ The dodders are weed parasites growing from seed 

 sown with the infested crop, or permitted to drop 

 Fig. 44 Bindweed. upon the ground the previous season. They grow for 



{After Vasey.) a time without attaching themselves to other plants 

 and unless a host is found within reach, they die when the stored food of the 

 seed is exhausted, since they form no leaves. Living, slender, leafless, straw- 

 colored stems twine about the host plant, sending sucking organs into it and 

 robbing it. They bear dense clusters of small, whitish flowers, followed by 

 numerous spherical pods full of seeds. The flax dodder attacks the flax in this 

 manner, the seeds being sown with the flax seed and ripening with it. 



