Scientific name: Ipomoea cairica

The mile-a-minute vine or Railway creaper is a beautiful evergreen creeper.It creeps over everything and anything around it. The hairless leaves with 5-7 lobes gives a smooth and pleasant look. The plants can be seen almost all along the railway tracts and hence the name! The purple flower studded vine wrapped around the material in which it twines is a wonderful sight. I have an obsession with the creeper as it has followed me where ever i worked.  While i was working in Denkanikottai (Tamil Nadu), i used to visit farmers for inspecting their silkworm crops. I used to take a particular route, just to enjoy the beauty of this vine spread over the way side hedges with numerous flowers smiling at me. Even in Mysore, just outside my lab, the old well is fully covered with this vine and i lost the count how many times i have gone and enjoyed the beauty. Further, outside the gate, it has formed a hut like structure, where i leaned in and took this photograph, on 11th September, 2011. I was literally about to fall off the hedge, while doing so ... but it is worth taking the risk to enjoy the beauty.