Field bindweed
Convolvulus arvensis
Family · Convolvulaceae · Irritating
The climber with white or pink bells that twines around everything and is the worst garden weed there is. Its root goes down metres and resprouts from any fragment left in the soil.
Fields and pasture · Roadsides and waste ground · Town and roadside
Also known ascreeping jenny, cornbind
How to tell it
An arrowhead leaf with two spreading basal lobes. A smooth funnel flower, white or pink, at most five centimetres, with no bracts covering the calyx. It always twines anticlockwise.
What it is confused with
Mallow bindweed
Convolvulus althaeoides
Mallow bindweed has a much larger deep pink flower and deeply cut silvery leaves; the common one has a small flower and an entire arrow leaf. Neither is eaten.
What it is for
None
It contains purgative glycosides and poisons livestock that eat it in quantity, especially horses. As a weed, it is one of the few that resists almost everything.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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