Goat's Foot Morning Glory

 

 

                 Railroad Vine, Ipomoea pes-caprae  

from an internet soirce:

“The Railroad Vine blooms during the summer and fall months. Its habitat is widespread and abundant throughout beach sands and dune ridges.  The large mats produced by this morning glory make it an important species in dune stabilization.”

In 1946 Galveston my parents and I were all enthusiastic about learning what we could about all the strange (to us) things we encountered on the beach.  We all made frequent visits to the Rosenberg Library to research our finds.

One of the unique finds on the beach was the seed of Entada gigas. 

Mom's research indicated that it was the seed of the “Goat's Foot Morning Glory.”

And so she told me that is what it was.  Is.

Recent internet inquiries provide a contradictory identification.(See top picture, above)

All we had to study was the seed  No vines grew on the Galveston beachfront that we frequented.

We moved from Galveston to Corpus Christi in 1951.  

New town  

New house. 

New schools.  

Also new to our family/household was the 1947 Ford station wagon that Pop bought.  (Prior to that we did not have an automobile)

Our house was just a short distance from Padre Island Drive.  Weekends the six of us piled into the station wagon and cruised along the two lanes of PID. 

(Remember, this was 1951 — before expressways)

 A stop at the toll gate, paid our dollar, and onward to the beach. Our chosen access took us to the beach at the location of Bob Hall Pier.  Turning right we traveled  along the water's edge in a southwesterly direction until we arrived at an area not crowded by other beach-goers.

We eagerly began our day of exploration — first along the water's edge, seeking the occasional shell. Then into the dunes.

Then, in the early 1950's the sand dunes were twenty feet or more in height.

In the lower areas between the mountain-like dunes we observed luxurious growths of vegetation.

Because of the similarities of leaf shape to morning glories that we grew around our house in Alabama we reasonably assigned the name “Goat's Foot Morning Glory” to the vines we encountered.

And just as reasonably assumed that these vines bore the brown seed pod that we first encountered on the beach in Galveston.

I searched valiantly among the sprawling growths of the vines in the dunes, and never found any of the seed pods.  It seems that the seed pods grow on distant shores, and are carried by Gulf currents to the Texas coast.

The beaches, both at Galveston and Padre Island are the source of many delightful memories.  I'd return to Galveston, but I have learned that “You can't go home again!”