Stripey Calystegia

A quick post to start catching up on recent news. A trip to Grafham Water Lagoons (VC31) this Sunday with the HFFS turned up this attractive form of Large Bindweed (Calystegia silvatica subsp. disjuncta) with broad pink stripes on the outside of the corolla (var. zonata). The stripes are arranged outermost when the flowers are in bud, resulting in striking pink buds that contrast with the flowers. This variety only seems to have a few records in the BSBI database. Rare or overlooked?, my observations to date suggest the former.

As a postscript. Going for a walk around Woodlesford (VC63) I saw other examples of the species with very faint barely perceptible pink tinging where the stripes of var. zonata would be. The buds were white or with a patchy hint of pink. So it seems this variety is at the extreme end of a spectrum of variation in the species, and  var. disjuncta is not necessarily pristine white in all cases.