Hillside Morning-glory

Coast Range False Bindweed
Calystegia collina ssp. collina
NATIVE – CA ENDEMIC

Description (Jepson, PlantID.net)

• Eudicotyledon
  • Eudicots are a major lineage of flowering plants; see family for general characteristics
• Morning-glory Family (Convolvulaceae)
• Low-growing perennial herb
  • Grows from a rhizome (horizontal underground stem)
• Leaves
  • Arranged in a basal rosette
  • Kidney-shaped to triangular
    • Pointed tips
    • Margins very wavy, crinkly
  • Covered with soft, wooly hairs (tomentose)
• Flowers
  • Inflorescence (flower arrangement) is of large, solitary flowers on short stems
  • Each flower with 5 fused petals, twisted and pleated in bud, opening into a funnel shape
    • White or cream, often tinted with light pink
  • Ovary superior (attached above other flower parts)
• Fruit is a capsule (a dry, multi-chambered fruit that splits open at maturity)
• Height to a few inches

Distribution

• Native and endemic (limited) to California
  • Grows in rocky soils, open grassland, or in open oak/pine woodland, often in serpentine soil
  • 85-94% of plants occur on ultramafic soils, e.g. serpentine; see ultramafic affinity rankings (Calfora per Safford and Miller 2020)
  • See Serpentine Grassland for more about Edgewood’s serpentine soil and the unique communities it supports
  • See Calflora for statewide observations of this plant
• Grows at elevations to 1,970 ft.

Uses (San Mateo County Parks prohibits removal of any natural material)

• Wildlife
  • Visited by birds, e.g. Anna’s hummingbird (Calypte anna), and insects for nectar and pollen
    • Nectar source for native bees, bumblebees, and some moths, e.g. white-lined sphinx moth (Hyles lineata)
  • Larval food source (host) for some moths, e.g. morning-glory plume moth (Emmelina monodactyla)

Name Derivation

• Calystegia (kal-i-STEE-jee-a) – from the Greek kalux, “cup,” and stegos, “a covering,” meaning a covering or concealing cup, probably referring to the leaf-like structures (bractlets) partially concealing the sepals of some species
• collina (kol-EYE-na) – most likely named after the Roman goddess of hills, Collina, related to the Latin collis, “hill”
• Morning-glory – flower opens in the early morning

Notes

• Although members of the morning-glory family are often vines, hillside morning-glory grows in a tidy basal rosette
• Geophytes (e.g. plants growing from bulbs, corms, rhizomes, or enlarged taproots) are well adapted to survive fire, our Mediterranean climate’s long, dry summers, and extended droughts
  • Above-ground growth dies back after flowering, while underground the plant survives with stored water and nutrients
• Edgewood’s hillside morning-glory is classified as a subspecies
  • Subspecies indicates a geographically-separated population with distinct morphological characteristics; when not isolated, interbreeding is possible
  • Variety indicates a population with small morphological variations, e.g. color, seen throughout the geographic range of the species; interbreeding is possible
  • In practice, botanists have not consistently applied these ranks

ID Tips

• May be confused with 2 other morning-glory species at Edgewood – hill morning-glory (C. subacaulis ssp. subacaulis) and Western morning-glory (C. purpurata ssp. purpurata)

	Hill Morning-glory	Hillside Morning-glory	Western Morning-glory
Growth Habit	low-growing basal rosette	low-growing basal rosette	climbing vine
Hairiness	not or sparsely hairy	very hairy	not hairy
Leaves	flat or wavy edges … rounded or pointed tips	very wavy edges … pointed tips	flat edges … pointed tips
Habitat	grassland and scrub	serpentine grassland and scrub	chaparral, scrub, and open woodland

At Edgewood

• Found in serpentine and non-serpentine grasslands
  • See iNaturalist for observations of this plant
• Flowers April – June

Specific References

Alexander, E.B. 2010, Oct. and 2011, Jan. Serpentine soils and why they limit plant survival and growth. Fremontia 38/39: 28-31.

Las Pilitas Nursery. Pollination of California native plants.

Mitchell, M. 2017. Convolvulaceae: Morning-glory family — Calystegia and Convolvulus. Monterey County Wildflowers, Trees, and Ferns – A Photographic Guide.

Safford, H.D., and J.E.D. Miller. 2020. An updated database of serpentine endemism in the California flora. Madroño 67(2): 85-104. BioOne Complete. PDF hosted by San Diego State University, San Diego, California.

General References

Calflora Database. 2014. Berkeley, California.

Calscape. 2018. California Native Plant Society.

Charters, M.L. 2015. California Plant Names: Latin and Greek Meanings and Derivations.

Charters, M.L. 2017. Southern California Wildflowers: Guide to the Pronunciation of Specific, Generic and Family Names.

Corelli, T. 2004. Flowering Plants of Edgewood Natural Preserve (2nd. ed.). Monocot Press, Half Moon Bay, California.

Dave’s Garden.

Elpel, T.J. 2013. Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification. HOPS Press, Pony, Montana.

Flora of North America. efloras.org.

Harris, J.G., and M.W. Harris. 2013. Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary. Spring Lake Publishing, Spring Lake, Utah.

Keator, G. 2009. California Plant Families. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California.

Native American Ethnobotany DB.

Regents of the University of California. Jepson eFlora. Jepson Herbarium. University of California, Berkeley.