Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Sweet autumn clematis

SWEET AUTUMN CLEMATIS

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Clematis terniflora DC.

[=Clematis dioscoreifolia H. Lév. & Vaniot]

[=Clematis maximowicziana Franch. & Sav.]

Riley County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: Vines to 26 feet long

Family: Ranunculaceae - Buttercup Family

Flowering Period: July, August, September,October

Also Called:

Yam-leaf clematis.

Stems:

Stem climbing or clambering; branches unarmed; with tendril-like petioles and leaf rachises; bark grayish brown, finely ridged, ridges eventually exfoliating; wood greenish white, soft. Green, flexible, striate, glabrous; leaf scars crescent-shaped; pith white; buds reddish brown, ovoid, .04 to .08 inch, apex acute, scales glabrous or hairy distally.

Leaves:

Deciduous, opposite, 1(-2)-pinnately compound, 2 to 10 inches; stipules absent; petiole .4 to 2.8 inches, glabrous or sparsely hairy; leaflets 3, 5, or 7, ovate to lanceolate or triangular, .8 to 2.8 inches long, .6 to 2 inches wide, base wedge-shaped to truncate, sometimes oblique, margins entire, apex obtuse to acute, lower surfaces light green, glabrous or sparsely hairy along veins, upper surfaces green, glabrous.

Inflorescences:

Inflorescences axillary on new growth, cymes, simple or compound, 3-12-flowered; peduncles .4 to 2.4 inches; pedicels .4 to 1.4 inch.

Flowers:

Bisexual, usually some unisexual (staminate) in same inflorescence, radially symmetric; perianth saucer-shaped; sepals 4, distinct, white, spreading, elliptic to lanceolate or oblanceolate, .35 to .7 inch, thin, abaxially densely tomentose along margins, upper surfaces glabrous; petals absent; stamens more or less 50; pistils 5-10, ovary superior, 1-locular; style 1 per pistil.

Fruits:

September-October; achenes, brown, rim sometimes light brown, compressed-fusiform, .24 to .35 inch long, .12 to .16 inch wide, .03 to .05 inch thick, faces silky, style persistent, .8 to 1.6 inch; plumose; seed 1.

Habitat:

Thickets, woodlots, woodland edges, fencerows, stream banks.

Distribution:

East 1/3 of Kansas

Origin:

Naturalized

Comments:

Clematis, from an ancient name for a vine and terniflora three-flowered, alluding to the inflorescences. Clematis terniflora was first documented in Kansas in 1955. It is a popular ornamental, and during the past 20 years it has spread rapidly outside cultivation, especially east of the Flint Hills.

Sweet autumn clematis flowers