Morning Glory

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Morning Glory - Wikipedia

Duration: Mostly perennial but cold-intolerant

Native to: First known in China

Edibility: Some species have edible leaves; others psychedelic

Status in Yard: Spreading in west back yard

There are over 1000 plants called morning glory, covering multiple genera. I will not attempt to determine which one of them is in my backyard.

I believe they originally made their way into my backyard from my western neighbor's yard, climbing though my fence. In 2016, some of the plants spread along the top of the various tuft grasses that proliferated then, such as dallisgrass, as shown in this photo taken on May 22, 2016.

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Close-up of some morning glories on September 8, 2016

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By late September, 2016, morning glories were thick on the fence and sprawling out over the grass. A skipper pollinated a morning glory on September 23, 2016.

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In Houston, the morning glories start sprouting in July and August. The cotyledons have a distinctive U shape, and look nothing like the plant's heart-shaped true leaves. In August 2019, I had to pick bunches of them from my beds and the walkways between them. The morning glory cotyledons are in the center of the picture, surrounded by smaller purslane cotyledons.