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Calystegia sepium

Calystegia sepium: Flower
Photo by Derrick Ditchburn. High resolution version

Common name:	Hedge Bindweed	Family:	Convolvulaceae
Author:	(L.)R.Br.	Botanical references:	17, 200
Synonyms:	Convolvulus sepium (L.)
Known Hazards:	This species is said to be purgative[173], some caution is advised.
Range:	Most of Europe, excluding the north but including Britain, W. Asia, N. Africa and N. America.
Habitat:	Hedges, fences, edges of woods, waste ground etc[9].
Edibility Rating (1-5):	2	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	1

Other Possible Synonyms:	From various places across the web, may not be correct. See below.
	C. sepium ssp. sepium[B,P] Convolvulus nashii[B,P] Convolvulus sepium var. communis[B,P]
Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Bearbind [H], Bindweed,Great [E], Cit Sarmasigi [E], Correhuela Mayor [E], Greater Bindweed [H], Haagwinde [D], Hedge Bindweed [L], Hedge Convolvulus [H], Hedge False Bindweed [B,P], Hooded Bindweed [H], Hsu Chin Keu [E], Hsuan Hua [E], Old Man's Night Cap [H], Tun Ch'Ang Ts'Ao [E],
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Solanales. Morning-glory family
Other Range Info:	From the Ethnobotany Database
	Britain China Spain Turkey
Noxious, Invasive and Injurious Weeds	From USDA PLANTS database, Weeds Australia , DEFRA Injurious Weeds
	Listed as noxious/invasive for: Utah.

Physical Characteristics

Perennial Climber growing to 3m at a fast rate. It is hardy to zone 4. It is in flower from July to September. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Bees and Lepidoptera (Moths & Butterflies). We rate it 2/5 for edibility and 1/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It requires moist soil.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Hedgerow, Woodland, Dappled Shade, Shady Edge.

Edible Uses

Leaves Root.

Stalks and root - cooked[2, 46, 128, 153]. Washed and steamed[179]. A pleasant sweet taste[178]. Rich in starch and sugars, it is very nutritious[179]. It should not be eaten regularly, however, due to its possible purgative effect[179].
Young shoots - cooked[46, 61, 105]. Some caution is advised since they are possibly purgative[179].

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

Cholagogue Demulcent Diuretic Febrifuge Poultice Purgative.

The root is demulcent, diuretic, febrifuge, poultice and strongly purgative[9, 21, 178, 222]. Use of the root is believed to increase the flow of bile[222].

Other Uses

String.

The stems are very flexible and can be used as an emergency string for tying[6]. It is fairly strong but not very long-lasting[K].

Cultivation details

Easily grown in ordinary garden soil in a sunny position, but plants are apt to become invasive[1, 200].
Hedge bindweed is a troublesome garden weed, especially when growing on moist soils[1, 4]. The plant is a vigorous climber with annual shoots 3 metres or more long. These twine around other plants and can kill them by smothering them[4]. Once established, it is very difficult to eradicate the plant because it has very deep roots and is capable of re-growing from any part of the root left in the ground.
The flowers open in sunny weather and remain closed during dull weather[4].
Nearly all taxa in Calystegia intergrade geographically into neighboring taxa with the exception of the widespread coastal species, C. soldanella (Linnaeus) R. Brown. It is impossible to draw clearly defined specific limits, and intermediate forms are always found where two taxa approximate geographically[266].

Propagation

Seed - sow spring in a cold frame in a free draining compost and only just cover. The seed usually germinates in 1 - 3 months at 15° c[138]. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and grow them on in a cold frame for at least their first winter. Plant them out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts.
Division in early spring whilst dormant[200].

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

Web References

Details of Medicinal Uses, Habitats, etc. in M. Grieve A Modern Herbal (1931) [4]
[H] Details of Scandanavian and European Common names in Henriette's names database
[E] Ethnobotany Data (common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.
[V] Images from the Vascular Plant Image Gallery of the Texas A& M Bioinformatics Working Group.
[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[C] Taxon data. from the CalFlora database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

References for Calystegia sepium ssp. sepium (a possible synonym).

[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.

References for Convolvulus sepium (a possible synonym).

[H] Details of Scandanavian and European Common names in Henriette's names database
[E] Ethnobotany Data (common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.

References for calystegia sepium (a possible synonym).

[HP] PhotoFrom Henriette's plant pictures

References for the family Convolvulaceae.

[CHINA] Data Very detailed botanical/identification info. from the Flora of China.

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[K] Ken Fern
Notes from observations, tasting etc at Plants For A Future and on field trips.

[1] F. Chittendon. RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 Oxford University Press 1951
Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaces in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [200]).

[2] Hedrick. U. P. Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. Dover Publications 1972 ISBN 0-486-20459-6
Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.

[4] Grieve. A Modern Herbal. Penguin 1984 ISBN 0-14-046-440-9
Not so modern (1930's?) but lots of information, mainly temperate plants.

[6] Mabey. R. Plants with a Purpose. Fontana 1979 ISBN 0-00-635555-2
Details on some of the useful wild plants of Britain. Poor on pictures but otherwise very good.

[9] Launert. E. Edible and Medicinal Plants. Hamlyn 1981 ISBN 0-600-37216-2
Covers plants in Europe. a drawing of each plant, quite a bit of interesting information.

[17] Clapham, Tootin and Warburg. Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press 1962
A very comprehensive flora, the standard reference book but it has no pictures.

[21] Lust. J. The Herb Book. Bantam books 1983 ISBN 0-553-23827-2
Lots of information tightly crammed into a fairly small book.

[46] Uphof. J. C. Th. Dictionary of Economic Plants. Weinheim 1959
An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.

[61] Usher. G. A Dictionary of Plants Used by Man. Constable 1974 ISBN 0094579202
Forget the sexist title, this is one of the best books on the subject. Lists a very extensive range of useful plants from around the world with very brief details of the uses. Not for the casual reader.

[105] Tanaka. T. Tanaka's Cyclopaedia of Edible Plants of the World. Keigaku Publishing 1976
The most comprehensive guide to edible plants I've come across. Only the briefest entry for each species, though, and some of the entries are more than a little dubious. Not for the casual reader.

[128] Laing. and Blackwell. Plants of New Zealand. Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd 1907
An old flora of New Zealand in a readable style. Some details of plant uses.

[138] Bird. R. (Editor) Growing from Seed. Volume 3. Thompson and Morgan. 1989
Very readable magazine with lots of information on propagation.

[153] Brooker. S. G., Cambie. R. C. and Cooper. R. C. Economic Native Plants of New Zealand. Oxford University Press 1991 ISBN 0-19-558229-2
An interesting and readable book on the useful plants of New Zealand.

[173] Crowe. A. Native Edible Plants of New Zealand. Hodder and Stoughton 1990 ISBN 0-340-508302
A very well written and illustrated book based on the authors own experiments with living on a native diet.

[178] Stuart. Rev. G. A. Chinese Materia Medica. Taipei. Southern Materials Centre
A translation of an ancient Chinese herbal. Fascinating.

[179] Reid. B. E. Famine Foods of the Chiu-Huang Pen-ts'ao. Taipei. Southern Materials Centre 1977
A translation of an ancient Chinese book on edible wild foods. Fascinating.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[222] Foster. S. & Duke. J. A. A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants. Eastern and Central N. America. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1990 ISBN 0395467225
A concise book dealing with almost 500 species. A line drawing of each plant is included plus colour photographs of about 100 species. Very good as a field guide, it only gives brief details about the plants medicinal properties.

[266] Flora of China 1994
On-line version of the Flora - an excellent resource giving basic info on habitat and some uses.

Readers Comments

Morning Glory Website

Rich (michael@thewitchshaven.com) Tue Oct 24 09:27:47 2000

An interesting page from a Convolvulaceae enthusiast which features many pictures of the plants and a seed swap area. The page is at http://www.exoticplants.org.uk/.

Cross references: Plants: Calystegia japonica. Genera: Calystegia, Ipomoea, Convolvulus.

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