By Patsy Cunningham
Field bindweed is an insidious weed that makes its initial appearance as a diminutive white/pink morning glory. Its fragile appearance and small decorative flowers may tempt you to let it grow in your garden, twining in the roses. If you do, you will soon have an unmanageable mass of vegetation choking your plants and eventually covering over your bushes. Convolvulus arvensis is indeed in the same family and genus as the cultivated morning glory. Its many alternative names attest to its widespread appearance. It is also called wild morning glory, creeping jenny, creeping Charlie, with wind and orchard morning-glory. It has other less pleasant names that attest to its overpowering nature: possession vine, corn bind and the evocative “devil’s guts.”
Field bindweed intertwines with everything in its path and the weight of its full grown tangled masses can topple plants. As with most weeds, it competes with other species for
sunlight, moisture and nutrients. In the wild, it can decrease habitat biodiversity by crowding out grasses and native plants. Field bindweed was accidentally introduced in
North America back in the early 18th century, probably as a contaminant in grain seed. It is listed as a noxious weed in the lower 48 states.
It is a perennial vine that grows to 6 or 7 feet long. Its blooms are an inch or less in diameter, mainly white though sometimes tinged with pink. Blooming from June to August, each plant can produce up to 500 seeds. These seeds remain viable in the soil for up to 20 years. The root system is also remarkable, with some of the vertical roots reaching depths of 20 feet. Most of the roots are in the upper 2 feet of soil. According to The University of California Statewide IPM Program, “About 15 to 30 inches from the parent plant, a lateral often turns downward, becoming a secondary vertical root, and sends out both roots and shoots from the turning point. By this means a single field bindweed plant can spread radially more than 10 feet in a growing season.” Each vine is quick growing and can make a complete revolution around a stem in less than 2 hours.
For home gardeners, hoeing frequently is the best way to prevent bindweed from gaining a foothold. If it is already established in an area, it must be persistently cut down to ground level to eventually starve the roots. Be advised that established roots can live with no foliage or light for 2- 3 years, so careful weed-cloth use would be a long term solution. You would think that such a thin vine would be easy to remove from your roses, but I have found that it twines in such close revolutions that it is practically impossible to just pull off. If you just cut it at the base, the dead vines are persistent and unsightly.
Unlike the weeds I have described so far in this series, field bindweed is only marginally edible, although tortoises like it. The leaves are used as a flavoring in some dishes in Turkey and the roots are used in a hair rinse for dandruff in Pakistan. In older herbals it does have some medicinal properties such as being a laxative. The whole plant can be used to make a natural green dye. Maybe the most practical use is employing the twining vines as short term plant ties for tomatoes and other plants.
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