Weedy but splendid, Morning Glories come in a range of colors, three of which were growing in this one patch in Beechview. Shades of violet and pink are the most common, but here we also have a pale blue.
For a description of the species, see the Ipomoea purpurea reference page.
Morning Glories are very common weeds here; they can be quite rampant, but they reward us with gorgeous flowers. By far the majority are in deep purple or pink, but the genetics of the species are variable enough to have produced a wide variety of cultivated colors, and we sometimes see unusual colors in the wild. Here is a wild pale-blue form that grew in Beechview.
These showy vines have appeared here more than once, and doubtless they will appear again. They have a magnetic attraction for the camera. All these pictures, by the way, went straight from the camera to publication without any alteration, because Morning Glories can’t help making good pictures.
In previous articles, we gave this description, which we repeat here:
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.)
