noun
definition
Any of several plants, of the genus Convolvulus, found in temperate climates, having small trumpet-shaped flowers.
definition
A species of hawkmoth, Agrius convolvuli.
Examples of convolvulus in a Sentence
This is the Convolvulus minor of gardens.
Species of Ipomaea (morning glory), Convolvulus and Calystegia are cultivated as ornamental plants.
The most characteristic members of the order are twining plants with generally smooth heart-shaped leaves and large showy white or purple flowers, as, for instance, the greater bindweed of English hedges, Calystegia sepium, and many species of the genus Ipomaea, the largest of the order, including the "convolvulus major" of gardens, and morning glory.
The large showy flowers are visited by insects for the honey which is secreted by a ring-like disk below the ovary; large Convolvulus sepium, slightly reduced.
Convolvulus arvensis (bindweed) is a pest in fields and gardens on account of its wide-spreading underground stem, and many of the dodders (Cuscuta) cause damage to crops.
Several members of the order are used medicinally for the strong purging properties of the milky juice (latex) which they contain; scammony is the dried latex from the underground stem of Convolvulus Scarnmonia, a native of the Levant, while jalap is the product of the tubercles of Exogonium Purga, a native of Mexico.
The creeping or trailing type is a common one, as in the English bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis), which has also a tendency to climb, and Calystegia Soldanella, the sea-bindweed, the long creeping stem of which forms a sandbinder on English seashores; a widespread and efficient tropical sand-binder is Ipomaea Pes-Caprae.
Convolvulus has about tso to 200 species, mainly in temperate climates; the genus is principally developed in the Mediterranean area and western Asia.
Among the nine hundred species of Solanum less than a dozen have this property of forming tubers, but similar growths are formed at the ends of the shoots of the common bramble, of Convolvulus sepium, of Helianthus tuberoses, the so-called Jerusalem artichoke, of Sagittaria, and other plants.
The sandhills on the verge of the ocean are carpeted with creepers and the wild convolvulus.
Bindweed (Convolvulus) - Handsome climbing herbs; some hardy, and, where properly used, effective.
Convolvulus Cneorum - A silvery-leaved shrubby species of high ornament and beauty, growing 3 to 5 feet high.
Dahurian Convolvulus (Convolvulus Dahuricus) - A showy, twining perennial, bearing in summer rosy-purple flowers.
Sea Bindweed (Convolvulus Soldanella) - A distinct trailing species with fleshy leaves; flowering in summer, pale red, and handsome in the rock garden, if planted so that its shoots droop over stones.
Convolvulus Sylvaticus - No plant forms more beautiful and delicate curtains of foliage and flowers than this, which grows vigorously in any soil.
M. cordata comes very near the older kind, save that its leaves are rounded and tapering like those of a Convolvulus, and the flowers have traces of a magenta-purple.