Twines anticlockwise over hedges, with big white trumpets and arrow-shaped leaves; fleshy white roots re-sprout from any fragment
Hedge bindweed - Calystegia sepium.
Nature · Wildflowers & flowers
Hedge bindweed
Native · perennial climber, flowers June to September · hedges, fences, riverbanks
Calystegia sepium — Convolvulaceae
Hedge bindweed is the big white trumpet-flowered climber that smothers hedges and garden shrubs in summer. Its fleshy white roots regrow from the smallest fragment, which makes it a famously stubborn weed. Yet it is a native plant with a flower that is visited by moths at night.
How to spot them
- ▸Large, pure white trumpets 4-7 cm long, with two leafy bracts hugging the base of the flower
- ▸Arrow-shaped leaves on long stalks, with two backward-pointing basal lobes
- ▸Stems twine anticlockwise, seen from above, up whatever they meet
- ▸Look-alike: field bindweed is a trailing plant with pink-and-white striped flowers under 3 cm across and smaller, narrower leaves
- ▸Larger garden escapes (large bindweed, Calystegia silvatica) have flowers up to 9 cm with bracteoles that swell and overlap
How to know it
Told from a smaller, trailing field-margin relative with pink-striped flowers under 3 cm across
Hedge bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis, field bindweed, is the look-alike).
Its huge white trumpets are visited by moths in the evening; the leaves of this climber feed the caterpillar of a large migrant hawkmoth
Hedge bindweed - the convolvulus hawkmoth (Agrius convolvuli) is a rare migrant.
Old country names include bellbine and granny-pop-out-of-bed, for its bell-shaped white flowers that seem to pop from the hedge
Hedge bindweed.
Honeysuckle climbs in the opposite direction to this white-flowered weed
Hedge bindweed twines anticlockwise; honeysuckle twines clockwise.
Belongs to the morning-glory family, Convolvulaceae, alongside sweet potato
Hedge bindweed.
Quick-fire facts
- •Family Convolvulaceae, which also contains sweet potato and morning glory
- •The Wildlife Trusts give the flowering period as June to September and the height as up to 3 m
- •It roots from even the smallest fragment, spreading at an incredible rate (Wildlife Trusts)
- •Native to Britain; common in hedgerows, woodland edges and riverbanks
- •Twines anticlockwise when viewed from above, opposite to honeysuckle
- •The larger-flowered garden escape Calystegia silvatica (large bindweed) is a neophyte that has spread widely
- •The related field bindweed has smaller, striped, almond-scented flowers
- •Flowers last a single day; they close in the evening and in dull weather
Drill it — 6 cards
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Sources
- The Wildlife Trusts — Hedge bindweed