Great Bindweed

Great Bindweed

Great Bindweed - Calystegia sepium

An annual climbing plant, the Great Bindweed is a very widespread and adaptable species, easily recognised by its large white funnel-shaped flowers.

The voluble stem can reach 4 metres in length. Its alternate and sagittated leaves are rather far apart from each other, so the flowers are far more noticeable than the rest of the plant, often giving the impression that they belong to the plant it is climbing on.

As in other Bindweeds (Convolvulaceae) the flowers close when it rains or the sky is overcast, but they often stay open at night when they can benefit from visiting large moths and other nocturnal insects.

It favours moist, clayey soils, rich in nutrients. By growing so remarkably quickly, the Great Bindweed can colonise grounds subject to seasonal flooding, where it establishes itself late, flowering in August-September (a happens for example in the reed beds and riparian woodlands).