Morning glory vine

Vine #7 Morning glory (Ipomoea nil or Asagao in Japan)

The new house on Tutwiler has some surprise vegetation we are discovering. There is a pale blue morning glory vine growing on a fence and nearby rose bush. 

 

Chapter 20 in the Tale of Genji is titled Asagao. Genji tries to have an affair with the princess Asagao but is rebuffed.
"He paid a visit to Princess Asagao, whose name meant "the morning glory". Her attitude was very stiff and formal. He came back and lay awake with disappointment. He had the shutters raised early and stood looking out at the morning mist. He broke off a morning glory in the garden and sent it to Asagao with a poem saying, "I wonder if the flower has been taken past its bloom".

Hiding behind a showy competitor Sept. 6, 2015

The color combination between the green and the violet is very pleasing.

After an accident broke this sundial, we left it as our own Greco-Roman ruins.

 

The morning glory is a popular flower in Japan. The older literature and paintings referred to an intense yellow variety, but in modern day Japan there are no yellow morning glories. For some reason they have gone extinct. To set matters right the Suntory Brewery Co. (Suntory Global Innovation Center Co., Ltd.) did genetic engineering on a morning glory to add back a missing enzyme (aureusidin synthase) needed to make the yellow pigment. They thereby restored the fabled phantom yellow morning glory of old. Suntory has also made blue carnations and blue roses by a similar method (different enzyme).

The enzyme added came from snapdragon and it converts a chalcone in morning glories to an aurone, a bright yellow pigment. The basic scaffolds of these molecules are shown here.

see this link

Another plant in the same genus is Ipomea batatas. This is the sweet potato. Not unexpectedly the flowers look very similar.

Sweet potato flower

For more info on morning glories visit "A Wandering Botanist"