Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

GRAY BINDWEED

File Size: 79 KB

Convolvulus equitans Benth.

Morton County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: Trailing or prostrate

Family: Convolvulaceae - Morning Glory Family

Flowering Period: April, May, June, July, August, September

Also Called:

Texas bindweed.

Stems:

Up to 6 feet long, trailing to decumbent, grayish-green, pubescent with matted hairs; tendrils absent.

Leaves:

Alternate, simple, on stalks .1 to 2 inches long, quite variable in shape, narrowly oblong with projecting basal lobes or triangular-lanceolate to ovate-elliptic, usually much longer than wide, main portion sometimes long and narrow, often deeply indented basally, .5 to 3 inches long, .1 to 1.5 inch wide, densely gray-pubescent; margins lobed or toothed, rarely entire.

Inflorescences:

Flowers usually solitary, occasionally 2 or 3, on stalks in leaf axils.

Flowers:

Calyx, 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, densely pubescent; corollas bell-shaped, .6 to 1.2 inches long, .75 to 1.5 inches wide, white or pink, sometimes with a reddish center; corolla margins with 5 sharp points or projections; stamens 5, slightly unequal; anthers brown; style 1; stigmas 2.

Fruits:

Capsule, nearly spherical, smooth, 1-4 seeded; seeds black, glabrous.

Habitat:

Dry disturbed areas, prairies, plains, and hills; sandy, loamy, or rocky soils.

Distribution:

West 1/3 of Kansas.

Forage Value:

Quail will eat the seeds and white-tailed deer will eat the leaves.

Comments:

Gray bindweed does not form large patches like field bindweed Convolvulus arvensis.

Gray bindweed