Usually glabrous perennial herb. Stems terete, strongly twisting and climbing, 1-3 m long. Leaves triangular in outline, sagittate or hastate-sagittate, 40-120 mm long and 20-60 mm wide at base, apex acute or acuminate, basal lobes slightly divergent, obliquely truncate or acute, often almost angulate; petiole 10-50 mm long. Peduncles 1-flowered, longer than leaves; bracteoles ovate or ovate-cordate, acute or sub-obtuse, ± 18 mm long, longer than calyx and almost concealing it. Sepals broadly lanceolate, very pale green, up to 10 mm long. Corolla funÂnel-shaped, white or pink, 50-55 mm long, with short obtuse lobes. Stamens 15-30 mm long; anthers 4.0-6.5 mm long. Capsule subglobose. Flowering time December and January.
Habitat
Distinguished by its sagittate leaves and 50-55 mm long corolla. Brummitt (1972) described a number of subspecies. It appears that the South African material belongs to the typiÂcal subspecies.
Use
1. * Calystegia sepium (L.) R.Br., ProdroÂmus florae novae hollandiae ...: 483 (1810); Choisy: 433 (1845); A.Meeuse: 697 (1957a); Brummitt: 78 (1972); Ross-Craig: t. XXJ/22 (1979). Type: The original description was based on Bauhin, Pinax 294 (1671) but the species is also represented in the Linnean Herbarium and that specimen may be taken to represent the lectotype.
Range
A native of Europe and North and South America, introduced as a weed elsewhere. Very rare and local in the Cape Peninsula. Map 29.
