Mid Summer and Morning Glories

I was driving somewhere the other day, and a puff of warm air blew into the car carrying the scent of clover blossoms and other fragrances, and it took me back to the days of my youth in western Buncombe County where my grandmother lived. The sense of smell, they tell me, is one sense most closely tied to memory. I just sat and remembered.

One of the things I remember most about those days, and one of my favorite flowers, is Morning Glory. Though most of our Morning Glories are introduced, and can become rather weedy, I still think they are an icon of summer, and will always be part of the summers of my youth.

Purple form

I remember the corn growing high at this time in my grandmother's garden, the bean vines growing up around the corn, the old time bean called by Mountain people "Cornfield Beans", a bean probably gotten from the Cherokee, and in a riotous confusion of vines and purple and pink blossoms, the Morning Glory vines. We would pick beans, break corn from the stalks, and I would admire the Morning Glory as we got our food for supper. I remember the sights, sounds and smells of the corn fields, and the way the Morning Glory would close up before noon. I remember that my favorite color of Morning Glory was (and still is) the pink.

Pink Form

The cornfield was not the only place for Morning Glory though, and it could be seen in almost any disturbed ground, lawn edges, fallow fields, and flower gardens meant for other flowers. As I said, it can get a bit weedy. At first frost though, it was all gone, to fold up for another year.

Also along the roadsides, in the awfulest clay soil of the road cut was another member of the Morning Glory clan, the Wild Sweet Potato or Man Root. It has a white flower, and is actually native to our area, while the Common Morning Glory is thought to have originated in Mexico.

Wild Sweet Potato or Man Root near my home

The root is said to be medicinal (thought to regulate hormones, having a chemical related to Estrogen and Testosterone), and is huge - I tried to dig one once to move it into my yard at home. It was already partially exposed from the activities of a road gang, but it was as big around as my arm, and easily six feet long, and that was when I gave up digging. I just admire them on the roadside now.

Wild Sweet Potato at Cradle of Forestry

There are others found in other parts of the country, and there are beach Morning Glories, one of them called Railroad Vine because it sprawls out along the beach and makes lines in the sand like railroad lines, very straight. Another I found year before last on a trip to the beach (and brought home seeds) is the Ivy Leafed Morning Glory, with sky blue flowers.

Ivy Leaf Morning Glory

Though native to Puerto Rico, it is introduced to our area, and is generally found in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain. I found the parent to this plant in a rest area in South Carolina and managed to find some seed pods. A couple of the seeds came up, and the plant climbed up a 6 foot bamboo pole and onto the house. The plants this year have done the same. Though not as prolific a bloomer as the Common, nor are the flowers as big, it is still lovely, and worth having.

The old home place is gone now, and most of the area around my grandmother's house has transmogrified into a sort of country suburb with cracker box houses and tract developments. In my mind it will always be country, with fields and pastures. I still yearn to live in a place like that.