Sweet autumn clematis

Images

Click on image to view full size

Sweet autumn clematis habit

Sweet autumn clematis leaves

Sweet autumn clematis flowers

Sweet autumn clematis fruit

Sweet autumn clematis

Sweet autumn clematis leaves

Sweet autumn clematis fruit

Morphology

Stem

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.

Inflorescence

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

Flower

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.

Fruit

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.

Ecology

Habitat

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

Distribution

East 1/3 of Kansas

Additional Notes

Synonyms

Alternative scientific names that have been used for this plant.