Joann Merritt's Essays

Glory In The Morning
January, 2000

If you are “a diller, a dollar, a ten o’clock scholar” you will probably miss nature’s floral presentation of Bush Morning Glories (Ipomoea leptophyllous) the loveliest of the native morning glories that grow in Midland County. You must go early to see the blooms as they normally close by midmorning, remaining open longer only if the sky is overcast or cloudy.

In addition to their visual beauty Bush Morning Glories have an unseen but very interesting root and survival system. At times an example of Ipomoea’s secret underground movement can be seen near the intersection of County Roads 1120 South and 170 East. The optimal time to look for their root system is after the borrow ditches have been graded by the county’s monster machines, aka road graders and mowers, with assistance from the farmer’s tractor. Bush Morning Glories are not helpless, they defend themselves by developing enormous thickened roots called tubers that store water and nutrients that grow deep in the sandy soil enabling them to survive mans or natures onslaught.

I have read of these tubers weighing from 25 to 50 pounds but the ones I have seen are much smaller. Once after the roadsides and ditches had been bladed to the Nth degree, Don and I decided to dig up one of the partially exposed tubers hoping to successfully transplant it to our yard. We had carefully dug more than two feet deep before breaking off a part of the elongated root which resembles a sweet potato and shares the same genus (Ipomoea batata). We planted the damaged tuber deep in our sandy soil and much to our delight it sprouted and even put on some leaves but along with our hopes and expectations it shriveled and died. I have since read that this flower should be started from seed as it is virtually impossible to transplant.

The time frame needed for Bush Morning Glories to put on buds and start blooming unfortunately coincides with the amount of time needed for weeds to become a road hazard. This brings out the monster machines with their steel blades, knives and plows glinting to wreaking havoc upon the morning glories, destroying all visible parts and sending them underground again in a Y2K survival mode.

The tubers are dormant in the winter needing only a light rain during the growing season for them to send up numerous green shoots. They do not make vines that twist and climb as do most morning glories but rather have flexible stems that curve gracefully making an attractive bush about two feet high. The tips of its long narrow leaves lightly sweep the sand around the edges of the plant with a feathery touch.

The drought of 1997 didn’t adversely affect Bush Morning Glories since their tubers had prepared them for just such an emergency. With the help of some rain they victoriously resurfaced, maturing into a bush and putting on hundreds of new blooms each day. The neighboring farmer couldn’t cultivate his land as it was in a soil bank program and the lack of sufficient rainfall that would cause roadside weeds to be a problem mad it unnecessary for the graders or mowers to go into action. These combined events left the morning glories free to grow and bloom profusely without interference from man.

For years sand had blown from a field on the north side of County Road 170 East catching and building up several feet high along the opposite fence line. The wind and sand had created a raised flower bed which made a perfect display area. On a cloudy August morning in 1997 Don and I were overjoyed to find a beautiful lavender-pink exhibit of these flowers on both sides of the road. Some plants had as many as fifty large colorful blooms that were still glistening with dew drops, nature’s diamonds. The shape of these blooms has been likened to a bell, funnel or trumpet and all three are descriptive. Morning Glories are aptly named for they are indeed in their glory in the mornings. By noon that day the clouds had dissipated, the sun came out and the flowers soon closed but not before we had delighted in nature’s wildflower pageant. It was a morning glorious event!

In an old 1928 book Texas Wildflowers by Ellen Schulz she recounts the legend of how morning glory blooms were fashioned. This is my freely translated version of Schulz’ story.

When the earth was still young fairies were everywhere. Fairy children loved to frolic in the meadow among the wildflowers and butterflies, find lizards on the sunny hillsides and walk through the woods where they could hear birds singing, but their favorite place to play was in a little rippling brook.

One morning they started out to play Fairy Mother said to them “Now, children, Rainbow Fairy has just finished making the lovely frocks you are wearing today and Dew Fairy already has too many clothes to wash tonight so please don’t get them dirty by playing in the brook.” They promised, but like (fairy) children everywhere they soon forgot their Mother’s instructions and were having great fun making fairy sandcastles and splashing in the water when suddenly they realized they had disobeyed their mother.

Fairy Bright-eyes had the bright idea of washing their frocks in the brook and hanging them on nearby bushes to dry. Just as they were finishing this chore they heard a loud splash and a deep scary sound “jug-o-rum, jug -o-rum”! They ran home as fast as their fairy feet would carry them to tell Fairy Mother what had happened. “Why, that was just the old bullfrog who lives in the cattails at the edge of the brook, you needn’t be afraid of him” she said and sent them scurrying back to get their clean clothes.

While they had been gone their fairy frocks had grown tightly to the bushes and no matter how they pulled and tugged the frocks would not come loose and there they remain to this very day looking very much like morning glory blooms.

Dust off your childhood imagination! Hold a morning glory bloom upside down to see its resemblance to the frilly frocks that the fairy children placed on the bushes to dry a long time ago when the earth was still young and fairies roamed the earth. Perhaps fairies still roam the earth if we only believed in them!

My sentiments concerning Bush Morning Glories are best expressed by the following verse that a dear friend, Frances Williams, shared with me:

Many authors, known and unknown, have made use of flowers in their writings, including Shakespeare who made symbolic use of morning glories in A Midsummer Night’s Dream - but that’s another story.