This is a perennial with many twisting, slender, smooth stems which twine around each other and other plants, hedges and low-growing shrubs for strength. Amazingly, the tips of these stems have been observed to complete a full circle in two hours. Hedge Bindweed has pure white, trumpet-shaped flowers (35–50 mm across) which are five-lobed and which stay open overnight on bright moonlit nights to attract hawkmoths to their nectar. Below the unscented, funnel-shaped flower are two bracts which surround the calyx and which do not overlap. These flowers bloom from June to September. The alternate leaves are heart or arrow-shaped, 7–10 cm long. This is a native plant which belongs to the Convolvulaceae family.
I first identified this plant at Rosslare, Co Wexford in 1979 and photographed it at Tacumshin, Co Wexford in 2005.
If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre
