Texas Bindweed (_Convolvulus hermannioides_) has small white morning-glory flowers with a dark-red center. They are seldom more than an inch broad. The spreading or twining vines reach a length of several feet. The leaves are very variable in shape and often have spreading lobes at each side of the base like the hoary bindweed (_Convolvulus incanus_). Both grow on Texas plains, but the hoary bindweed is widely distributed from Kansas and Arkansas to Mexico. The Texas bindweed may be distinguished by the ear-like projections at the base of the sepals. The flowers bloom from April to August.
Purple Morning-Glory. Bindweed. Tie-Vine (_Ipomoea trifida_) is a lovely but pernicious vine of Texas, Mexico, and tropical America. The roots are perennial and very difficult to eradicate from cotton and corn fields. It blooms from spring to fall, the flowers opening only in the morning. The morning-glory group is very large, and many showy forms are found in Texas. The sweet potato (_Ipomoea batatas_) and others are valued for their tuberous roots.
[Illustration: STANDING CYPRESS BLUE GILIA WHITE GILIA]
Mostly annual and perennial herbs; calyx 5-lobed; corolla tubular, 5-lobed; ovary usually 3-celled; style often 3-parted; stamens 5, inserted on corolla-tube; capsules small.
Standing Cypress. Red Gilia (_Gilia rubra_) might also be called torch flowers, for the tall spikes with their masses of red tubular flowers make flaming spots of color on the edges of the post oak woods in May and June. It is sometimes known as Indian plume, Texas plume, or red Texas star.
The plants are usually unbranched and grow two to three feet high; however, if the top of the stem is removed or injured near the time of flowering, it will branch into several flowering spikes. The stems are pale green and quite leafy with the finely dissected leaves. The narrow tubular flowers are over an inch long and have broad spreading lobes which, on their inner surface, are a pale orange-red dotted with a darker red. The flowers, which resemble those of the cypress vine, are closely clustered on the stem, those at the top opening first. The capsules are nearly an inch long and contain numerous papery seeds.
Blue Gilia. Golden Eye (_Gilia rigidula_), differing markedly from the red gilia in the shape of the flowers, has a short, broadly flaring corolla with a conspicuous yellow center. The flowers are nearly an inch broad. The plants are perennial and are often widely branched at the base, forming clumps nearly a foot broad. The blue gilia is found on hills and stony plains from Central Texas to Mexico and New Mexico and blooms from March to October.