Whenever I drive somewhere, I am always keeping an eye out for things to photograph. One afternoon I was headed down to see my Mother, and was going about 65 mph when I passed a small creek that runs beside the road. Surrounding one of the large pine trees that grows beside the creek was a green vine that was covered in striking white flowers. Now of course at 65 mph I only got a glimpse of it, but that was enough to make me want to see more. I turned around, found a safe place to park, and went to explore. When I walked in off the road towards the tree and the creek, it quickly became apparent that this vine was climbing the tree, and was actually wrapping itself around every thing it got close to.

Up close, the flowers were even more striking than they had been from the road. They were pretty decent sized, trumpet shaped white flowers with a gorgeous pinkish and yellow center. They kind of reminded me of morning glories, but it was mid afternoon in the middle of summer in Florida, and the vine was directly in the sun. I knew that morning glories would be totally closed up under those conditions, but these flowers were wide open. Of course, I took a bunch of photos before I headed back to my truck to continue on my drive.

Later on, I was telling my Mother about these flowers, and showing her some of the pictures. She agreed with me that they looked like morning glories, but that morning glories would never be open under those circumstances. We put one of the images into my PictureIt app (made by the same people who make the PictureInsect app) and found out that it was an Alamo vine (also called baby wood rose or noyau vine). They are closely related to morning glories, and like morning glories their flowers open and close. The Alamo flowers open around midday rather than in the morning and stay open into the evening. They are actually a native Florida plant (some disagree) that likes to grow in disturbed soil or along the edges of creeks (just where I found them!). They are a pretty aggressive plant, and they will quickly out complete a lot of the other native vegetation.

Besides occurring in the wild, many people also use Alamo vine as an ornamental. They like the bright white flowers, and the fact that those flowers are very attractive to butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. Even when it’s not flowering, the vine leaves are pretty since they are multi-lobed, thick, and bright green. It does need to be kept in check, however, so that it doesn’t smother other plants in the garden. Like other members of the morning glory family, the leaves can be toxic, but prepared properly, they can also have medicinal uses (like many other plants) including treating scabies and other sources of itchiness and as a mild muscle relaxant. The tubers can also be boiled and eaten, but are supposed to be somewhat bitter. Are you familiar with Alamo vine? If so, what have you used it for?