Calystegia macrostegia ssp. cyclostegia (House) Brummitt    Convolvulaceae (Morning-Glory Family)                                                                                                                       Native   Island Morning Glory

                                        March Photo

Plant Characteristics:  Perennial, stems wiry, trailing or twining, 1-4 m. long; lvs. rather fleshy, deltoid-hastate, broader than long to slightly less broad than long, 2-4.5 cm. long, the basal lobes usually toothed or angled; petioles much shorter than blades; bracts near to and like the calyx, mostly subcordate at base, membranous and purplish, 10-15 mm. long, +/-pointed; corolla 2.5-4.5 cm. long; seeds ca. 3 mm. long reticulate-ridged.

Habitat:  Dry slopes up to 1500 ft. elev.; Coastal Sage Scrub, Chaparral; mostly near the coast; n. Los Angeles Co. to Monterey Co., Catalina Id.  March-Aug.

Name:  Greek, kalux, husk and stegos, a covering.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 371).  Greek, makros, large and Greek, stegos, a covering.  (Jaeger 147,246).  This seems to say the same thing as the genus name? (my comment).  Greek, kyklos, a circle and stegos, a covering. (Jaeger 73, 147).  The ssp. name probably refers to the shape of the calyx which encircles the flower tube.  (my comment).  John Johnson suggests that macrostegia means that this particular species has the bract husk covering considerably enlarged and that cyclostegia means that in this subspecies the husk covering encircles the calyx more closely than in the typical form.

General:  Uncommon in the study area, having been found only on the Castaway's bluffs, along the bike and horse path in Santa Ana Heights and in the canyon northerly of the Newporter Inn. Photographed on the Castaway's bluffs.  There was only one plant at each location  (my comments).       A tincture of the whole plant was once considered beneficial for medicinal purposes.  (Dale 101).      The genus resembles Convolvulus, but with pollen sphaeroidal, stigma oblong, +/- cylindrical with blunt apices, the stigmatic area and style distinct.  Caps. 1-locular with an incomplete septum.  A fairly large genus of which the ssp. have previously largely been referred to Convolvulus.  (Munz, Flora So. Calif. 371.        Intergrades with ssp. macrostegia, ssp. intermedia, and C. purpurata ssp. purpurata.  (Hickman, Ed. 518).       Delfina Cuero, a Kumeyaay or Southern Diegueno Indian made the following comment about C. macrostegia ssp. arida in her autobiography:  "We used it as a medicine; boiled the whole plant and bathed sores in the liquid."  (Shipek 88).

Text Ref:  Abrams Vol. III 383; Hickman, Ed. 518; Munz, Flora So. Calif. 374; Roberts 20.

Photo Ref:  March-April 87 # 5,6,7.

Identity: by R. De Ruff, confirmed by F. Roberts.

First Found:  March 1987.

Computer Ref:  Plant Data 310.

Have plant specimen.

Last edit 3/4/05.  

                                    March Photo                                                                       March Photo