Convolvulus arvensis L.

Algeria: Convolvulus arvensis germinates in autumn-winter; flowering takes place from March to November.

Convolvulus arvensis multiplies both sexually by seeds and vegetatively by rhizomes and suckers.

Algeria: Convolvulus arvensis is a very common species in the different annual and perennial crops of the country, It can be found in all the stations that do not offer any particularity of distribution, and has a great ecological amplitude with respect to the physical and chemical nature of the soil. Suckers and rhizomes combine their effects to ensure the multiplication of the species by maintaining enough reserve material to feed a reinfestation. As a result, frequent suckering, carried out indiscriminately, only makes the situation worse. Its abundance is greater in mechanized crops than in manual crops.

 

Local harmfulness
 
Mauritius: Convolvulus arvensis is rare in cultivation, but dangerous because of the persistent deep root from which new stems emerge.
Reunion: Absent.
South Africa: Convolvulus arvensis is a troublesome weed in cultivated land.

Local harmfulness

Algeria: Convolvulus arvensis is a major "weed". It is one of the most harmful species of field crops because it can colonize practically all ecological environments (very frequent species), moreover its great adaptation to the agricultural environment gives it a very important potential of invasion of the plots (very abundant species). It is very harmful to spring and summer crops, because of its maximum vegetative development at this time of the year combined with a significant capacity for vegetative propagation.
 

Medicinal: The root of Convolvulus arvensis is purgative (cucohygrin), the leaves are cholagogue. The alkaloid extract of the aerial part accelerates coronary circulation and is a hypotensor.

Local control

Algeria: Above all, it is necessary to avoid the disking and milling of infested plots to encourage, as soon as the soil is sufficiently wiped, several superficial works with a cultivator, a tine harrow, a vibro-cultivator, or a perennial weeder, especially at the end of spring and in summer, bringing rhizomes and roots to the surface so that they can dry out during the hot and dry months of the year. To do this, wait until the bindweed is in full bloom, when the flowering hormones will inhibit those that make rhizomes and runners proliferate, to cut the stems, just before the formation of seeds, thus avoiding the vegetative sitmulation of roots, rhizomes and runners. In 3-4 years the bindweed will be exhausted and disappear in most cases. It is necessary to remember that any extirpation-fragmentation not followed by desiccation (such as for example in winter-spring) on the contrary supports the extension of the bindweed, the remedy then becomes worse than the evil. In the cultures under greenhouses, the technique of solarization although not to be neglected, gives only rather poor results. The ability of field bindweed to escape the action of the herbicides used poses a real challenge to its control. Young individuals can be controlled in post-emergence with 2,4-D, dicamba+triasulfuron, propoxycarbazone, etc. Adult individuals may be controlled with bentazone, metribuzin, linuron, paraquat S/F dichloride, tribenuron-methyl, clodinafop-propargyl, sulfosulfuron, trifluralin, etc.

Herbarium pictures ReCOLNAT: https://explore.recolnat.org/search/botanique/simplequery=Convolvulus%2520arvensis