Field bindweed
Convolvulus arvensis
Field bindweed is a low, twining, deep-rooted perennial vine in the morning-glory family, with arrowhead-shaped leaves and pretty funnel-shaped flowers that open white to soft pink. Do not be charmed: Plotwright lists it as a know-your-enemy entry, not a plant to grow. Convolvulus arvensis is one of the most difficult-to-eradicate weeds in the world. A single plant builds a perennial root and rhizome system that can reach more than 20 feet deep, regenerates from the smallest broken fragment, and seeds into a soil seed bank that stays viable for decades. It twines over and strangles crops, perennials, and shrubs, climbing anything it touches. It is listed as a noxious weed in many US states. Learn to recognize it, never plant it, and treat any patch as a long-term control problem. Its one honest virtue is that the flowers are an early and season-long nectar source for some bees.
Climate fit: moderate (60/100)
Light
Full sun / Part shade
Water
Moderate water
Mature size
3-6" tall · 18" apart
Hardy in zones
2a-10b
brutally cold to mild winters
Native in Illinois
No
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Not a food plant.
Cold hardiness
These values are location-based: this location's current hardiness is the baseline, and the 2050 value is a projected future climate for this same location.
Now
Zone 6b
Plotwright
USDA Zone 6b
-5°F to 0°F
Well-suited
Zone 7a
Plotwright
0°F to 5°F
Well-suited
In plain terms: This location has cold winters. Its winters are projected to keep warming through 2050.
✓
Well-suited today and still thriving in 2050.
Heat tolerance
Heat tolerance values are location-based too: heat days today are observed at this site, and the 2050 value projects this same location under a future climate.
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Where this plant fits
Suitable across 45 ecoregions — 45 climate-resilient through 2070. Best matches first.
Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests
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Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests
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Arizona Mountains forests
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Atlantic coastal pine barrens
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Blue Mountains forests
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California coastal sage and chaparral
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Canadian Aspen forests and parklands
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Central Pacific Northwest coastal forests
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Central Tallgrass prairie
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Central-Southern Cascades Forests
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Similar plants
Browse lateral options with similar roles, light needs, size, or native-range overlap; these are not filtered for a better climate fit.
Plantago major
Broadleaf plantain
Broadleaf plantain is the broad-leaved, ground-hugging weed of lawns, paths, driveways, and roadsides across North America - and, honestly, an introduced Eurasian species, not a native. It forms a flat basal rosette of broad, strongly ribbed oval leaves that presses tight to the ground, sending up slender, erect, rat-tail flower spikes through summer. Its tie to human disturbance runs so deep that some Indigenous peoples called it 'white man's footprint,' because it followed colonists wherever soil was trodden bare. Despite the weedy reputation it is genuinely undervalued for habitat: the wind-pollinated spikes are heavy pollen sources, the ripe seed feeds finches and other small birds, and it is a documented larval host for the common buckeye butterfly. The young leaves are edible cooked or in salad, with a long medicinal and poultice history.
Calendula officinalis
Calendula (pot marigold)
An Old World cottage-garden annual grown for daisy- to chrysanthemum-like flowerheads (3-4 inches across) in bright yellow through deep orange, often with a contrasting darker center disk. In cool climates it blooms over a long summer-to-fall window; in hot summers it tends to languish and may need a midseason cutback to rebloom. The somewhat bitter flowers and lance-shaped aromatic leaves are edible, and the petals lend color to soups, rice, and baked goods.
Anthriscus cerefolium
Chervil
A fast, fine-textured cool-season culinary annual in the carrot family (Apiaceae), native to the Middle East, Russia, and the Caucasus and now grown worldwide. NC State Extension describes an erect, spreading plant about 1-2 feet tall with light green, feathery, finely divided (tripinnate) leaves — like a more delicate parsley — and a mild aniseed scent. Small white five-petaled flowers open in saucer-shaped umbels 1-2 inches across in spring and summer. It is generally grown as an annual (occasionally biennial in milder areas), prefers cool weather in moist, well-drained soil, and is a classic component of French fines herbes, prized for a delicate flavor best used fresh.
Mentha × piperita
Peppermint
A rhizomatous, upright herbaceous perennial of the mint family, most commonly grown as a culinary or medicinal herb and as a ground cover. A natural hybrid of watermint (Mentha aquatica) and spearmint (Mentha spicata), it carries fragrant rounded-to-lance-shaped toothed leaves on square stems and showy pink flower spikes in mid- to late summer. Native to Europe, it spreads aggressively by rhizomes into an attractive ground cover and rarely sets seed, so it is propagated vegetatively and is best confined by a soil barrier (Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder).
Stevia rebaudiana
Stevia
A tender perennial herb in the aster family (Asteraceae), grown for its remarkably sweet leaves — per the Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder the foliage contains glucoside compounds and tastes notably sweeter than sugar with no calories, which is why it is also called sweetleaf. Native to Brazil and Paraguay, it forms weak, floppy stems to 1-2 feet tall clothed in oblong, toothed leaves, with small showy white flowers in July and August. Winter hardy only in USDA zones 10-11; across most of North America it is grown as an annual or overwintered indoors, and leaves are best harvested before flowering.
Borago officinalis
Borage
A rough, sprawling Mediterranean annual grown for showy, open racemes of drooping, star-shaped bright blue flowers in summer. Branched stems and wrinkled, dull gray-green leaves are clad in bristly hairs and carry the taste and fragrance of cucumber. Easy in poor, dry soils, drought-tolerant, a magnet for bees, and a self-seeder that returns to the garden year after year.
Sources & citations
Cite this page
For lesson plans, articles, or research that uses this page. To cite a single upstream fact instead, use its specific source listed below.
Plotwright. (2026, May 17). Field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis). Retrieved 2026, June 24, from https://plotwright.com/plants/convolvulus-arvensis
Sources for every fact
Every fact on this page traces to a source. 18 fields cited - 18 source-backed.
NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox
University extension service
Backs 17 fields
Identity
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Plant type
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