This week for Flora and Fauna Friday it’s a magenta flower of the morning marsh, Saltmarsh Morning-Glory (Ipomoea sagittata).
Saltmarsh Morning-Glory is an herbaceous twining vine belonging to, unsurprisingly, the Morning-Glory family, Convolvulaceae, and shares much of the same characteristics with our other Morning-Glories. Salt Marsh Morning-Glory is a perennial vine that dies back to its roots each winter. It climbs by twining around surrounding grasses, forbs, and shrubs and generally stays fairly low to the ground, sometimes growing like a sparse groundcover. Its leaves are narrow and sharply pointed like an arrowhead, which is the origin for its specific epithet “sagittata” meaning “arrow-shaped”. The flowers of Saltmarsh Morning-Glory are that characteristic funnel-shape of Morning-Glories and, from the front, present a roughly three inch circle of magenta, deepening in richness towards the center. Morning-Glories get their name from their flowers, which open in the morning and wilt in the heat of the afternoon. This species of Morning-Glory is also easily recognized by its preference for sandy, moist soils along brackish impoundments and the fringes of tidal creeks. Sometimes even growing out into salt scrub meadows.
