Calystegia sepium (hedge bindweed, Rutland beauty, bugle vine, heavenly trumpets, bellbind, granny-pop-out-of-bed and many others) is a species of flowering plant in the family Convolvulaceae. It has a subcosmopolitan distribution throughout temperate regions of the North and South hemispheres.
Hedge bindweed is an herbaceous perennial that twines in a counter-clockwise direction to a height of up to 3 m (10 ft). The leaves are arranged alternately on the spiralling stem; they are dull green above and paler below, simple and sagittate (arrowhead shaped), 5–10 cm (2–4 in) long and 3–7 cm (1+1⁄4–2+3⁄4 in) broad.
The flowers are white, sometimes with pink windows, produced from late spring to the end of summer (between July and September in northern Europe). The buds are enclosed by large (2 cm (3⁄4 in) long), ovate-lanceolate, green bracteoles with keels and burgundy margins; during anthesis they do not (or scarcely) overlap. The open flowers are trumpet-shaped, 3–7 centimetres (1+1⁄4–2+3⁄4 in) diameter. After flowering, the fruit develops as an almost spherical capsule, which is hidden by the bracts. It is 1 centimetre (1⁄2 in) in diameter, containing two to four large, dark brown, or black seeds that are shaped like quartered oranges.
The plant thrives in hedges, fields, borders, roadsides and open woods.
Hedge bindweed is toxic, containing calystegine alkaloids.
