Field Bindweed

It is a pity that this plant is so terribly invasive, because the flowers are quite beautiful. Still, seeing how it reacts (or rather, do...Read Moreesn't) react to the chemicals the landscapers at work use on it, I can't justify intentionally planting it anywhere.

I have this weed in my garden, here in Long Beach, CA. Everywhere I travel in the Southern California area; I see this weed taking garde...Read Morens over. Recently I went to a Home Depot and found them selling it!! It's highly invasive and I have tried everything to ride my garden of this plant.

This is as pestilent a plant as it gets. I think it is native here, in Bulgaria. The bulk of the time I spend weeding my garden here in N...Read Moreortheastern Bulgaria is occupied with unwinding the stems of this plant from my ornamentals. Truly a disgusting plant.

I can only think that the vitriole with which most people are writing about this plant comes from confusion with the larger growing and w...Read Morehite (or, rarely, completely pink) flowered Calystegias.
Convolvulus arvensis has striped pink and white flowers, less than an inch across. Here in its native territory it tries to scramble through the lavender (and looks very pretty), but it is easily dug out as the root system is by no means extensive.

I fought against the thuggish Calystegia sepium in the UK, and if C. arvensis grows atypically to become invasive in the US I sympathise. However, here in Europe it is only mildly invasive if at all, and an attractive part of the wild flora in my opinion.

I have my lawn sprayed every year to control bindweed - notice I said "control" - it's impossible to eradicate. It has invaded my garden...Read Mores, and I am very tempted to move. It's enough to make any gardener cry. I have also read that the leaves of this plant are poisonous, so I have to be careful when harvesting lettuce so bindweed doesn't sneak in with it.

Worst weed ever, its not just A weed, it’s THE weed. I have pulled and ripped for years, and roundup did nothing… im going to use bru...Read Moresh killer next year. It grows through all my plants and shades them out. If I don’t keep on it - it will smother everything… some areas here are bindweed wastelands… it smothers even the weedy smooth brome. I never use chemicals but im at the end of my rope and might just have to find a left-over coldwar weapon and NUKE it.

very very very persistant plant.......... very arid conditions here......at 6000 ft.....summers are hot (100) and dry.........winters are...Read More cold (0) and dry.........almost never give it water and it still rambles on and on and on...........i allowed it to grow as a ground cover to fill in the disturbed areas around the property........it finds no trouble doing so........definatly vines more than bushes........i cannot say if it is poisonous to any animal but i have never seen the birds eating seed from it.....nor the deer grazing it..........it doesnt get out of control here becuase of the aridity..........but it still rides through the worst of our droughts without ever succumbing...........loads of white flowers in the morning.........

Very much a dry summertime weed in lawns. Suppressed better by thicker growing turf.

Very invasive plant!!! Do not even think of planting this

Only way I can even grow anything in my back garden is to pull t...Read Morehe vines as I see them on a weekly basis. Roundup will kill it for a few weeks in the outlying areas, but it will return with a vengeance.

Ev0l, evil plant! Not my most hated weed because at least I don't have to pick the seeds out of the soil as with Spanish burclover and C...Read Moreleavers, but not even a heavy sheetmulch will stop this opportunist. While I can admire its evolution to be this successful, I could bludgeon whoever introduced this to our state.

For heaven's sakes, how anyone could not rate this plant negative is beyond me. I think Dave's Garden ought to consider a special catego...Read Morery for plants like this. It would immediately warn people about the plants' noxiousness by a red circle with a slash through it or something like that. As one of the other posters noted, most states have officially designated this plant as noxious and many of us have had terrible experiences with it. I can't imagine it's as bad as Kudzu, from what I saw when visiting Atlanta, but it's bad!

To put this plant in perspective, I have a number of noxious plants in my garden (thanks to the previous owners and/or several years of neglect before I moved in), including bamboo, myrtle spurge, mint, crabgrass, black medic, clover, and Virginia creeper, but this plant (morning glory or field bindweed) is THE WORST! The only thing comparable I encountered while living in Californing was Bermuda grass. Compared to bindweed, dandelion control is a piece of cake.

Field Bindweed Convolvulus arvensis is naturalized in Texas and other States and is considered an invasive noxious plant in Texas.

A noxious weed for sure; however it's worth noting that, in European folk use, a tea made from the flower, leaf and root was used as a la...Read Morexative. Tea made from the flower alone was used to heal fevers and wounds. Root tea was a strong purgative.

Downright evil. Rototilling can divide and propagate to roots, seeds can be dormant for decades, and they climb over competitors. The m...Read Moreethods I suggest in the garden for killing the rascal: Religious application of herbicidal cocktail with a paintbrush, and immediate and continued pulling.

It started last year. Given the arrow-shaped leaves and slight purple color, I thought it was some over wintered sweet potato. So I let i...Read Moret grow. What a mistake! It took over three 4X20 raised beds, while I was on a two week vacation in July.

Today, January 2nd, 2006, I started the cleanup of these beds and the eradication of the bindweed. The bindweed has all died with the killing frost, but underground is another story! It has a pencil thick tap root which will break about 4-5 inches deep when pulled. It also has numerous thinner cross roots that radiate out in every direction and depth. I pulled about two buckets of bindweed roots and probably only got 65-75% of them.

I will continue to pull and destroy as I see them while planting in these beds or cultivating them.

Extremely invasive! Runners turned up in our newly cleared and tilled 18'x20' garden plot within three months; pulling it out encouraged...Read More its return in denser clumps. Clipping the vines at their base seemed the only way to keep it from choking out many of our vegetables this past summer!

Several states have this plant listed with the USDA as a noxious weed.

Alaska:
field bindweed Noxi...Read Moreous weed
Arizona:
field bindweed Prohibited noxious weed
field bindweed Regulated noxious weeds
Arkansas:
field bindweed Noxious weed
California:
field bindweed C list (noxious weeds)
Colorado:
field bindweed Noxious weed
Hawaii:
field bindweed Noxious weed
Idaho:
field bindweed Noxious weed
Iowa:
European morning glory, field bindweed Primary noxious weed
Kansas:
field bindweed Noxious weed
Michigan:
bindweed Noxious weed
Minnesota:
field bindweed Prohibited noxious weed
Missouri:
field bindweed Noxious weed
Montana:
field bindweed Category 1 noxious weed
New Mexico:
field bindweed Class C noxious weed
North Dakota:
field bindweed Noxious weed
Oregon:
field bindweed "B" designated weed
field bindweed Quarantine
South Dakota:
field bindweed Noxious weed
field bindweed Regulated non-native plant species
Texas:
field bindweed Noxious plant
Utah:
field bindweed Noxious weed
Washington:
field bindweed Class C noxious weed
Wisconsin:
field bindweed, creeping Jenny Noxious weed
Wyoming:
field bindweed Noxious weed

Field bindweed is one of the worst weeds to try to eradicate because it has an extensive root system. In fact, the roots can grow down mo...Read Morere than ten feet. If it is cut or dug, the remaining rhizomes in the ground will send up new shoots. In addition, bindweed seeds can remain viable for up to fifty years. It is considered one of the ten worst weeds.

This very invasive weed can raise 4 inches of asphalt to reach the sun. Mind you the asphalt was laid HOT over the plant and didn't kill...Read More it. It aptly named bindweed because it binds what ever it touches. It will crawl under trucks waiting for harvest time and literally invade the engines, drive lines, wheels, It comes up where ever it pleases and doesn't need light to do it. It chokes good plants to death. It is next to impossible to kill off.

I changed my rating to neg.

It's every where and when you remove it, it just pops back up. Using weed killers doesn't seem...Read More to affect it.

This plant adores our hot, humid summers and little seems to put a halt to it.

I have pulled it,chopped it, poisoned it an...Read Mored burned it to no avail. I burn my vegetable garden off each fall to destroy at least part of the seeds that drop there. Since I won't use chemicals around my vegetables, I just have to rely on old fashioned sweat to keep it under control.

I have a moderate infestation, but just one season of carelessness would have me over run by the stuff. I think it's worse than Kudzu.

This is the WORST weed I have ever encountered. It spreads its roots underground and pops up everywhere in my perennial bed. It has sprea...Read Mored into my rhododendrums and requires pulling out every three to four days. It is now traveling underground towards my vegetable garden, popping up in the lawn en route. When it gets there I'm moving!

I have been fighting this forever it seems. I tried digging it out, but the roots seem to go way, way deep. I have resorted to using ro...Read Moreundup and other chemicals on it for the past 5 years. I've cut the amount down, but it takes more than one application to kill it. After the first dose, it just looks like it has the flu, then puts out more flowers and seeds. Nasty, nasty weed here. I've also read that the seeds can stay dormant in the soil for up to 50 years, then start growing again.

This plant is listed on the North Dakota invasive/troublesome list and this information is being distributed in a guide developed by the ND Weed Control Association and other agencies.

Plant Features
Perennial, creeping twining stems up to 6 feet
Variable shaped dark green arrowhead-like leaves
Flowers white to pink, two small green bracts around funnel-shaped flower head
Spreads by roots and seeds (4 seeds per fruit)
Roots extensive. May spread 30 feet laterally and reach depths of 30 feet

Distribution
Widespread invasive generally found on bare ground sites along road sides, crop fields, and grasslands.

Interesting Facts
Seeds can remain viable up to 50 years
Readily consumed by livestock and wildlife
Can spread by cultivation