Glory on a wet psychedelic afternoon

Ipomoea purpurea

Here is a Morning Glory, in this case photographed in the afternoon on a windy and drippy Sunday. In fact, it was a bit difficult to get this picture in view of the gusty wind blowing the flower around. I had to fool around with flash and exposure compensation to get an adequately short exposure.

The ipomoea plants in our garden have been very slow to get going this year. The seeds were slow and late to germinate, the germination rate was much poorer than usual, the seedlings grew slowly, and did not start to climb until recently, and the plants are only just beginning to put on a proper display. Last year, the flowering of almost all the plants was finished by the end of August after a spectacular (early) season. I'd be interested to hear if anyone can pinpoint what has been different this year.

Here is the "vine" on which some flowers have opened. We've put plants on either side of our front door: you can probably see a few left-hand flowers if you look carefully, as well as the obvious right-hand ones. We have several other plants in the back garden. This photograph was taken on the sunnier previous day!

The Wikipedia entry for Ipomoea has some interesting material, with links to Ipomoea purpurea and some nice photographs.

The seeds are, (I am told), quite reasonably active hallucinogens. Wikipedia says, in one place:

"Lysergic acid is made by alkaline hydrolysis of lysergamides like ergotamine, a substance derived from the ergot fungus on rye, or from ergine (lysergic acid amide, LSA), a compound that is found in morning glory ..."

In another entry (URL quoted earlier), however, it is suggested that LSA is not the active agent, but rather ergonovine (ergometrine) "is responsible instead, having verified psychoactive properties, though it is not unlikely that yet other undiscovered lysergamides are present in the seeds".