Flower bud growing along kangkong stem.

After deciding to keep my revived kangkong/water spinach plants that are growing in hanging bottle-pots, the plants surprised me with an unprecedented growth spurt. Perhaps it’s because the root system was already established; perhaps it’s because I took pains to water them heavily and add fertilizers more regularly. Whatever the case, I was anticipating a harvest when I noticed the appearance of flower buds along the stems of one of the plants.

It was just the tiniest protrusion when I first noticed the initial bud. I almost mistook it for new leaf growth, except that the shape looked wrong for a leaf.

In fact, I realized there were several buds forming at the leaf nodes along this particularly long stem that was hanging down from a suspended bottle-pot.

Profile view of the kangkong flower.

Over the next almost two weeks, I watched as the buds developed and grew, until one morning, a flash of white caught my eye…

…the first flower!

It was a pristine white, trumpet-like flower – very reminiscent of the morning glory family that it belongs to.

Our initial reaction to it was delighted surprise, because we tend to think of kangkong only as a leafy vegetable – who really thinks of flowers, right? But then common sense kicked in – after all, I grew these plants from seeds, and seeds are the result of flowers getting pollinated, right? Duh!

The pure white flower of my water spinach.

I wonder how long it will be before I can extract seeds..?

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