Morning glory:
Mile-a-minute or Coastal morning glory (Ipomoea cairica )

Blue morning glory (Ipomoea indica )

Family: Convolvulaceae

Status:

Description:
Both species are large vines. The leaves of blue morning glory are broadly heart-shaped or three-lobed, but variable in shape. The leaves of mile-a-minute are very deeply five to seven-lobed. Flowers are tubular, about 8 cm in diameter, and pink to mauve to deep blue, with paler bands. Fruit is a four-valved capsule, but blue morning glory seldom sets seed in southern Australia.

Preferred habitat and impacts:
Found around towns, particularly in near-coastal locations in moist shady or sunny sites. Sea-cliffs, gullies, forest edges. Both can smother both trees and shrubs and the groundcover vegetation.

Dispersal:
Both can reproduce vegetatively, from stem segments dumped or transported by floods or mowing machinery. Mile-a-minute also has wind-spread seed.

Look-alikes:
The native vine, large bindweed (Calystegia sepium) has narrowly heart-shaped leaves and a large pink flower, with white bands. It differs from the morning glories in having the base of the flower enclosed in two large green flaps (bracts). It often grows in wet areas around the edges of towns.
There are smaller native twining plants in the convolvulus family, Calystegia marginata, Convolvulus erubescens and Polymeria calycina, which have white or pink morning glory-like flowers, but all are much smaller than the weedy species, with flowers generally only 4cm or less in diameter, and leaves also smaller and roughly arrowhead shaped.
The small native beach plant, Calystegia soldanella, has a pink flower with white bands. The leaves are heart shaped, waxy and fleshy, to protect it from water loss in the harsh beach habitat. It trails across the sand or may have the stem buried with just the leaves protruding above the sand. It could give the impression of morning glory seedlings.

Control:
Stems will take root wherever they touch the ground, so if plants are being hand-dug, it needs to be done thoroughly. Young plants which are not trailing over the ground can be cut at the base and left to dry out in place, with the cut stem being treated with herbicide. Large woody stems can be treated by the scrape and paint method.
When removing any species of vines, be careful about pulling them down, as this can damage the supporting plant. Generally they are better left to die off and break up in place, unless this would involve leaving a lot of seed in the canopy. Try to control vines before seed has formed to avoid this problem, but if fruits are present (even if they are still green), they should be collected as carefully as possible and destroyed by burning or deep burial.