Morning Glory (Ipomoea purpurea)
An introduced ornamental that has become quite weedy, especially in the city of Pittsburgh, where it covers banks and winds through vacant lots with gay abandon. These vines grew on a fence in Beechview, where they were blooming at the beginning of September.
Flowers. Large and showy; trumpet-shaped, like an old phonograph horn; five-parted, with white center and contrasting darker markings radiating from the center. They come in several colors, from the deepest velvety purple to bright pink. They close by midday, or later if the weather is chilly or dark.
Leaves. Heart-shaped, or on vigorous and high-growing vines sometimes three-lobed, like a grape leaf; smooth above, lightly rough-hairy below; strongly veined.
Stem. Hairy; bright green; long and climbing; climbs by wrapping itself around any support, often bundling with other stems from the same plant, forming a dense mound; can climb to 9 feet (3 m) or so in one season.
Gray describes the genus and the species, which he places in the Euipomoea or Ipomoea-proper section of the genus:
IPOMOÈA L. MORNING GLORY. Calyx not bracteate at base, but the outer sepals commonly larger. Corolla salver-form or funnel-form to nearly campanulate; the limb entire or slightly lobed. Capsule globular, 4-6 (by abortion fewer)-seeded, 2-4-valved. (Nаmе, according to Linnaeus, from ips, a Bindweed, and homoios, like; but ips is a worm.)
§ 2. EUIPOMOÈA Gray. Corolla funnel-form or nearly campanulate, contorted in the bud; stamens and style not exserted
Lobes of stigma and cells 3, sepals long and narrow, attenuate upward, mostly hirsute below; corolla purple, blue, or white. (MORNING GLORY.)
I. purpurea (L.) Roth. (COMMON M.) Annual; stems retrorsely hairy; leaves heart-shaped, acuminate, entire; peduncles long, umbellately 3-5-flowered; calyx bristly-hairy below; corolla funnel-form, 4.5-7 cm. long, purple, varying to white. — Escaped in cultivated grounds. (Introd. from Trop. Am.)