FRIENDS OF EDGEWOOD NATURAL PRESERVE
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FRIENDS OF EDGEWOOD NATURAL PRESERVE
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A CLOSER LOOK AT HILLSIDE (OR HILL) MORNING GLORY By Bob Young This is the eleventh of a series of articles describing the flowers pictured in our wildflower brochure published jointly by the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of the California Native Plant Society and Friends of Edgewood Natural Preserve. — ed.
The specific epithet, subacaulis, means "almost stalkless." This refers to the very short stem of the flower. Usually, morning glory plants are thought of as vines, growing high up through shrubs. The Hillside Morning Glory plant, however, is found growing in grasslands and appears as a green clump about one foot in diameter and less than one foot tall. It's interesting to break down this scientific word into its four Latin parts: sub usually means "below," or "under," but can mean "almost" or "approaching." In botany sub can mean "less so than a similar plant." a means "not," "without," or "less." caul means stem of a plant. is is a Latinizing suffix. From the above we get "almost/without/a stem." (Most of this information was found on the internet at www.winternet.com/~chuckg/dictionary.html). Hillside Morning Glory can be found under 1500 feet elevation in the south portion of the north Coast Ranges, in the San Francisco Bay area, and in the south Coast Ranges north of Ventura. It blooms from April to June. The flower color is cream to white, often purple-tinged along the midveins. It has the typical morning glory funnel shape; the flower petals are about two inches long; the mouth of the flower is about 2 ½ inches wide. ` |
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Hillside Morning Glory, Calystegia
subacaulis, a member of the Morning Glory Family, was given its scientific
name in 1838. The genus name, Calystegia, is from two Greek words, caly
and steg. Caly means cup, which refers to the shape of the calyx that appears
just below the flower. Steg means to cover or conceal, referring to the bracts
that are just below the calyx and are large enough to cover the calyx.