Calystegia spithamaea(L.) Pursh

low false bindweed

WFO wfo-0001297185 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Calystegia spithamaea, photographed by Scott Clark
fig. a Scott Clark, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-05 / obs. 203483199
Calystegia spithamaea, photographed by Jeff Clark
fig. b Jeff Clark, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199861763
Calystegia spithamaea, photographed by Henry "Nick" Robertson
fig. c Henry "Nick" Robertson, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 155050781
Calystegia spithamaea, photographed by Henry "Nick" Robertson
fig. d Henry "Nick" Robertson, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 151182754
Calystegia spithamaea, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. e Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 150145497
Calystegia spithamaea, photographed by Summit Metro Parks
fig. f Summit Metro Parks, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 140142963
Calystegia spithamaea, photographed by Brian Magurn
fig. g Brian Magurn, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 139989091
Calystegia spithamaea, photographed by Jason Swanson
fig. h Jason Swanson, CC0 1.0 / obs. 140789775

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 26 botanical countries

Regions where Calystegia spithamaea is native: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Québec, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin ConnecticutIllinoisIndianaIowaKentuckyMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMissouriNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaNova ScotiaOhioOntarioPennsylvaniaQuébecTennesseeVermontVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsin Delaware
Native distribution of Calystegia spithamaea, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Connecticut CNT NORTHERN AMERICA
Delaware DEL
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kentucky KTY
Maine MAI
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Missouri MSO
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Nova Scotia NSC
Ohio OHI
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Québec QUE
Tennessee TEN
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 239 in flower of 297 examined

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Calystegia spithamaea observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 239 of 297 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 9 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 16 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Calystegia sepium var. pubescens A.Gray
  • Calystegia spithamaea var. pubescens (A.Gray) C.F.Reed
  • Calystegia tomentosa Pursh
  • Convolvulus camporum Greene
  • Convolvulus pensylvanicus Schrank
  • Convolvulus purshianus Wherry
  • Convolvulus sepium var. pubescens Fernald
  • Convolvulus spithamaeus L.
  • Convolvulus spithamaeus subsp. purshianus (Wherry) Wherry
  • Convolvulus spithamaeus subsp. stans (Michx.) Wherry
  • Convolvulus spithamaeus var. pubescens (A.Gray) Fernald
  • Convolvulus spithamaeus var. spithamaeus
  • Convolvulus spithamaeus var. stans (Michx.) Farw.
  • Convolvulus stans Michx.
  • Volvulus sepium var. pubescens Farw.
  • Volvulus spithamaeus var. stans Farw.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.