Railroad creeper
Ipomoea cairica (L.) Sweet
Bìm bìm (Ipomoea cairica), also called railroad creeper or mile-a-minute vine, is a perennial twining vine of the morning-glory family (Convolvulaceae) with hand-like five-lobed leaves and showy lavender funnel flowers; it covers fences and trellises across the tropics and is a common village shade plant in Vietnam.
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Gallery
Railroad creeper — Roadside settingRailroad creeper — Vine
Railroad creeper — Leaves
Railroad creeper — Flower
Railroad creeper — Seeds (dry capsule)
Railroad creeper — Stem with leaves & flowersRailroad creeper — Roadside settingRailroad creeper — VineOverview
Bìm bìm (Ipomoea cairica (L.) Sweet), also called railroad creeper, mile-a-minute vine, Cairo morning glory or coast morning glory, is a perennial twining herb of the morning-glory family (Convolvulaceae) that sprawls over fences, bushes, banks and trellises. The slender smooth stems branch freely and exude white latex when cut; the alternate leaves are palmately 5-lobed (sometimes 3–7), with narrow pointed lobes, a heart-shaped base and long petioles — the hand-like five-fingered shape gives the Chinese name '五爪金龙' (golden five-claw dragon). Axillary clusters bear 1–3 flowers; the showy funnel-shaped corolla, 4–6 cm across, is lavender to blue-violet with a darker purple tube, opening each morning and fading the same day.
Updated by lebachungtdh@gmail.com · 10/10/2026
The fruit is an ovoid capsule containing 4 short-hairy black seeds. In the tropics it flowers almost year-round. Probably native to tropical Africa or America (sources differ), it is now pantropical and subtropical — including Vietnam, China, India, Southeast Asia and Australia; it is grown or naturalised as cover for fences, screens and embankments. In Vietnam, bìm bìm is commonly planted in front of houses for shade; leaves and stems are used in folk medicine as poultices for boils and aches, and young shoots are boiled as greens in some regions. It should not be confused with the beach morning glory (Ipomoea pes-caprae), a creeper of coastal sands, nor with water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica) of the same genus.
Updated by lebachungtdh@gmail.com · 10/10/2026
Life cycle
From seed to productVine
Perennial twining herb clambering over fences and trellises.
Leaves
Hand-like palmately 5-lobed leaves with heart-shaped base.
Flower
Lavender funnel flower with darker tube, opening in the morning.
Fruit & seeds
Capsule containing 4 short-hairy black seeds.
Distribution & origin
Share of recorded occurrences by region- Southeast Asia (incl. Vietnam)30%
- Tropical Africa (origin disputed)20%
- India, Australia & the Pacific20%
- East Asia (China, Taiwan, Japan)15%
- Tropical America15%
Chemical composition
Relative content in agarwood resin- Water80%
- Fibre8%
- Sugars5%
- Protein3%
- Tannins & latex3%
- Alkaloids & glycosides (bioactives)1%
Uses
- Landscape: grown over fences, trellises and banks to prevent erosion; masses of lavender blooms open each morning by verandas and lanes
- Folk medicine: stems and leaves are pounded into poultices for boils and swellings; extracts are studied for anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activity
- Food: young shoots and leaves are boiled as greens in some regions; only harvested from clean, unsprayed sites
- Ecology: the fast twining vine can smother native bushes; regarded as an invasive weed to manage in some regions
Properties
- Form
- Perennial vine
- Product
- Shade cover, bank cover, folk medicine
- Hallmark
- Hand-like five-lobed leaves; lavender funnel flowers
- Uses
- Landscape, shade, medicine
Habitat & conservation
Bìm bìm prefers open, moist, well-drained sites: fences, roadsides, banks, waste lots, orchards and around houses; it tolerates poor soil and brief drought. Wild or planted throughout the tropics and subtropics — Vietnam, China, Taiwan, India, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Americas and Australia.
Conservation
A widespread, fast-spreading species not under threat — classified as Least Concern (LC). Morning-glory family (Convolvulaceae), genus Ipomoea — the same family as sweet potato and water spinach.
References
- 1Plants of the World Online — Ipomoea cairica (L.) Sweet — Kew Science, 2026
- 2Ipomoea cairica (railroad creeper) — description, distribution, common names — Wikipedia tiếng Anh, 2026
- 3Bìm bìm (Ipomoea cairica) — Cây cỏ Việt Nam, Phạm Hoàng Hộ — Flora of Vietnam, 2026
- 4五爪金龙 Ipomoea cairica — 形態、分布與用途 — Wikipedia tiếng Trung, 2026
- 5Nguồn ảnh: Yercaud-elango (CC BY-SA 4.0); Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata (CC BY-SA 4.0); Earth100 (CC BY-SA 3.0) — Wikimedia Commons,
- 6Nguồn ảnh: Steve Hurst/ARS (Public domain); Forest and Kim Starr (CC BY 3.0 US) — Wikimedia Commons,