Trailing vine with smooth, slender stems climbing onto other plants for support. Green leaf blades are round to oval in outline with 5 to 7 deep lobes. The 3/4 inch trumpet-shaped flowers are purplish-blue or white (rarely) with a yellow or white throat.
Hairless leaves and stems; stems trailing 5 to 6 feet; leaves deeply lobed, glandular dots on lower surface; sepals narrow gradually to a point (acuminate) and have spreading, long hairs; flowers purplish-blue (sometimes white), about 3/4 inches long.
Habitat
Found on rocky slopes and canyons, in washes, grasslands, chaparral and oak-woodlands often climbing on or wrapping around grasses, shrubs, small mesquites and other plants or trees that can provide support.
Flower Characteristics
Trumpet-shaped (funnelform) flowers grow in clusters of 1 to 3 from the leaf axils (between leaf and stem). Below each flower are green, linear leaf-like sepals with stiff, straight, white hairs. Flowers open in the morning and close in the afternoon.
Leaf and Stem Characteristics
The leaves are round to oval in outline, usually smooth and dotted with glands below, with 5 to 7 deep lobes and growing to about 1/2 inch long and 5/8 inch wide. The leaf base is heart-shaped. The lobes are lance-shaped and narrowed toward the base.
Fruit and Seed Characteristics
Fruit is a smooth, rounded capsule 1/2 inch long with a short, sharply pointed, flexible tip (apiculate). The fruit has 2 to 3 chambers (locules) that contain the seeds. The flower's leaf-like sepals with long stiff hairs remain attached below the fruit.
The fruit produces 1 to 6 dry seeds (usually 4) which are about 1/4 inch long, dark brown to black, pear-shaped (pyriform) with hairs pressed close to and lying flat against the surface of the seed.