Species Hierarchy
Kingdom PLANT (PLANTAE)
Phylum SEED PLANTS (EMBRYOPHYTA)
Class DICOTS (DICOTYLEDONEAE)
Order TUBE FLOWERS (TUBIFLORAE)
Family MORNING GLORY (CONVOLVULACEAE)
Common name: BINDWEED - GRAY
Scentific name: CONVOLVULUS EQUITANS

FLOWER - FRONT VIEW
Location: LBJ GRASSLAND, TEXAS, USA, 2008

Species Info:

This lifeform is found in the Great Plains of North America. This lifeform is found in Mexico. The white color will help identify this lifeform. This lifeform is common in suitable environments.

Gray bindweed (Convolvulus equitans) is found in the plains states including Oklahoma and Kansas, and west through most of Texas to Arizona and Mexico. The flowers are white with a red eye.

Bindweed or Convovulus genus contains about 250 species of climbing herbs and shrubs.  The genus is distributed widely  in most of the temperate and tropical world.   Although some species are native to the New World,  several Eurasian species have become common weeds in the New World.  There are now a total of six species growing in greater North America  The petioled leaves may be entire, lobed, hastate, or dentate.  The large flowers may be pink, purple, or white.

Morning Glory Family (Convolvulaceae) contains about 1,200 to 1,700 species with most of the species being found in the tropics. In North America, as of 1994, there were about 140 species in 17 genera that were either native or established.

Tubiflora Order of plants is comprised of a large number of  families that are characterized by having tube-like flowers. Several of the families have asymmetrical flowers with various lip and lobe configurations, while others have symmetrical flowers. The convention is to refer to the corolla divisions as lips, and to refer to the extensions at the end of the lips as lobes.

Dicots (Dicotyledoneae Class) are the predominant group of vascular plants on earth. With the exception of the grasses (Monocots) and the Conifers (Gymnosperms), most of the larger plants that one encounters are  Dicots. Dicots are characterized by having a seed with two outer shell coverings. Some of the more primitive Dicots are the typical hardwood trees (oaks, birches, hickories, etc). The more advanced Dicots include many of the Composite Family flowers like the  Dandelion, Aster, Thistles, and Sunflowers. Although many Monocots reach a very high degree of specialization, most botanists feel that the Dicots represent the most advanced group of plants.

Seed plants (Phylum Embryophyta) are generally grouped into one large phylum containing three major classes: the Gymnosperms, the Monocots, and the Dicots. (Some scientists separate the Gymnosperms into a separate phylum and refer to the remaining plants as flowering plants or Angiospermae.)

For North American counts of the number of species in each genus and family, the primary reference has been John T. Kartesz, author of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (1994). The geographical scope of his lists include, as part of greater North America, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Kartesz lists 21,757 species of vascular plants comprising the ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants as being found in greater North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands).

There are estimates within the scientific world that about half of the listed North American seed plants were originally native with the balance being comprised of Eurasian and tropical plants that have become established.

Plant kingdom contains a large variety of different organisms including mosses, ferns, and seed plants. Most plants manufacture their energy from sunlight and water. Identification of many species is difficult in that most individual plants have characteristics that have variables based on soil moisture, soil chemistry, and sunlight.

Because of the difficulty in learning and identifying different plant groups, specialists have emerged that study only a limited group of plants. These specialists revise the taxonomy and give us detailed descriptions and ranges of the various species.  Their results are published in technical journals and written with highly specialized words that apply to a specific group.

On the other hand, there are the nature publishers. These people and companies undertake the challenging task of trying to provide easy to use pictures and descriptions to identify those species.

 

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FLOWER - FRONT VIEW

FLOWER - SIDE VIEW

OPENING FLOWER

LEAF



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