CONVOLVULUS ALTHAEOIDES

Family:- CONVOLVULACEAE

Common Name:- Mallow-leaved bindweed

Synonyms:- Convolvulus gracilis.

Meaning:- Convolvulus (L) Entwined. A name used by the Roman naturalist and

philosopher Pliny.

Althaeoides (L) Resembling Althea.

General description:- Rather vigorous, hairy perennial, with woody stock, and a

slender creeping rootstock.

Stems:-

1) Up to 100 cm, slender, trailing or twining, herbaceous, with patent hairs.

Leaves:-

1) Alternate, very variable, often rather greyish, with patent hairs.

2) Lowest, cordate to reniform often with an undulate margin, petiolate.

3) Upper leaves deeply lobed, generally with linear, palmately arranged, divisions.

Flowers:-

1) Radially symmetrical, infundibuliform; pink, darker in the bottom of the funnel,

30 to 50 mm diam., solitary or by two on long stems situated above 2 small

acute bracts.

2) Corolla and calyx hairy.

3) Stamens 5, equal to each other, inserted into the base of the corolla.

Fruit:-

1) Capsules.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Rocky and stony hillsides with open dry shrubby vegetation, open

coniferous woodland, fallow terraces. 0-700(-1200) m.

Distribution:- Widespread and common across the Mediterranean. Somewhat

scattered with limited distribution on Crete.

Flowering time:- Late Mar-June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton