Articles

The Noxious, Persistent, Invasive, and Perennial Bindweeds

Two species of bindweed are found in Pennsylvania. Both are incredibly troublesome perennial vining weeds that are difficult to eradicate.

Save for later Print

Updated:

April 30, 2025

Skip to the end of the images gallery

Hedge bindweed. Photo: Susan Marquesen, Master Gardener

Skip to the beginning of the images gallery

Hedge Bindweed

Hedge bindweed (Calystegia sepium) is a hardy perennial native of the eastern United States that has spread throughout the country. It is also known as large bindweed, great bindweed, devil’s vine, lady’s nightcap, and wild morningglory.

In habit, hedge bindweed is a vine that can grow up to 10 feet. A small piece of rhizome or a weed seed from nursery stock, mulch, or compost can introduce this enemy weed into new areas. The sprouts from overwintered rhizomes emerge in the early spring and grow horizontally along the ground, twining counterclockwise until finding another plant or structure on which to wind tightly around and through vertically. The overwintered seeds emerge later in the spring and early summer. The weed has a relatively shallow root system attached to fleshy rhizomes that can grow deeply and extensively. Most of the root system can be found in the top two feet of soil.

The leaves are a defining feature. They are green, smooth, alternate, and triangular, with a pointed apex (tip). The base of the leaf has distinct, angular, squarely-cut lobes on either side of the petiole, and the lobes point away from the petiole. Leaves are 2 to 4 inches long and half or less as wide.

This bindweed is in the morningglory family (Convolvulaceae). Its flowers are actually quite attractive and resemble annual morningglory flowers. But hedge bindweed flowers are white and sometimes slightly pink. Morningglory is an annual that readily reseeds, but its flowers come in shades of purple and lavender. A mature egg-shaped seed capsule will contain 2 to 4 brown seeds. The capsules fall to the ground when ripe but can be dispersed through the movement of water, wildlife, and birds. Also, morningglory leaves are heart-shaped, rounded at the base, and pointed at the apex. The hedge bindweed flowers emerge from the leaf axils in the summer heat – July through August. There are two large green bracts that conceal the five overlapping sepals at the base of the bloom. The petals of the flower are fused into a pretty funnel shape, about 1.5 to 3 inches long and 2 inches wide. The flowers bloom in the early morning and close at night.

Field Bindweed

Field bindweed (Convulvulvus arvensis), also in the morningglory family (Convolvulaceae), is a native of Europe and Asia but has spread throughout the United States since it was first noted in Virginia in 1739. It is considered one of the worst weeds throughout North America and the world. It is also known as small bindweed, field morningglory, creeping Jenny, and devil’s guts. It is more troublesome in croplands than in natural areas, but many a home gardener curses its existence. Like hedge bindweed, it likes rich soil and the sunny locations of landscaped gardens, but more often can be found in disturbed areas, turf, and cropland.

Field bindweed is a vining perennial plant that can grow to 6 feet. It often forms mats on the ground as it searches for something to climb up, over, and through. Like hedge bindweed, the sprouts emerge in early spring from overwintered rhizomes, and overwintered seeds germinate in late spring to early summer.

Both field and hedge bindweed have smooth, green alternate leaves. The leaves of field bindweed differ from hedge bindweed in a number of ways. They are smaller at 1.5 to 2.5 inches, have a rounded tip (apex), and their base does not have squared lobes. The leaves look rather like arrowheads.

The trumpet-shaped flowers of field bindweed are similar in appearance and color to hedge bindweed flowers, but field bindweed flowers are smaller, topping out at ¾ inch. Field bindweed does have two bracts at the base of the flower, but they are smaller and do not cover the sepals.

The seeds of field bindweed are brown, smaller than those of hedge bindweed, and are 4 to a capsule.

More research has been focused on field bindweed than hedge bindweed due to its impact on agriculture. Where this weed is most troublesome, crop productivity has been reported to be reduced by 50% due to the weed out-competing the crop for moisture. Through this research, we know that the impermeable seeds can last 20 to 50 years in a soil seedbank. Long-range dispersal of seeds is likely because seeds can remain viable in the digestive tract of birds for as long as 144 hours. One plant may produce up to 600 seeds per year, of which 90% may be viable. Its flowers last for just one day and are insect-pollinated by honeybees, bumblebees, Halictid bees, moths, and butterflies.

The most impressive part of this weed is its life underground. It creates a system of roots and rhizomes that is extensive both vertically and horizontally. In one season, one plant can spread from 10 to 18 feet horizontally and 20 feet deep. As with other plants with this same type of rhizomatic system, the strength used for future plants is stored in the root system. Adventitious buds from the roots and rhizomes can create new shoots and roots: a new plant can develop from as little as a 3-inch piece of a root buried at a depth of 14 feet. As plants emerge, for their first 7 to 10 days, the shoots take the energy that has been stored underground. After 10 to 14 days, the above-ground plant begins to send energy back to re-strengthen the roots.

Control and Eradication

Bindweed is incredibly difficult to eradicate due to its extensive underground system of roots and rhizomes. If the home gardener can continuously pull any new sprouts, the rhizomes will lose strength eventually. But this requires consistent weekly effort, without a break, and usually for more than one season. Also, because it twines tightly around nearby plants, removing the bindweed vines can be difficult without damaging the “host” plants. It is possible to cut the weed where it meets the ground, but the stems of the dead bindweed plant will still be visible after they dry and brown.

A pre-emergent can be used for the seeds, which germinate between 40° and 100° F. Systemic herbicides that translocate the killing chemicals from the foliage to the roots can be an option. These are best used in the fall. Always follow label directions for any herbicide and remember that more is not better. It is often very difficult to isolate bindweed from other plants when this weed is growing in a perennial bed or mixed border. The issue with using herbicides in perennial beds is that they are non-selective, meaning that they will kill not only the bindweed but every plant the herbicide touches. One potential solution could be to temporarily encourage bindweed’s growth by isolating it and training a bindweed vine onto a small structure. When it gets to an appropriate size, protect nearby plants and spray the target weed.

Both hedge bindweed and field bindweed are awful weeds for the home gardener. Eradicate this weed when you first see it before it has the opportunity to spread and become a perennial problem.