Clematis crispa
Clematis bigelovii
blue-jasmine, curly clematis, curly virginsbower, marsh clematis, swamp leather flower
Bigelow's clematis, Bigelow's leather flower
viny, to 3 m, glabrous or sparsely to moderately pilose-pubescent, denser at nodes.
erect or sprawling, 0.1-0.6 m, short pubescent-pilose, sometimes sparsely so.
blade 1-2-pinnate or rarely a few simple or 3-foliolate;
leaflets 4-10 plus additional ± tendril-like terminal leaflet, usually lanceolate to ovate, occasionally linear, unlobed or proximally 3-5-lobed, (1.5-)3-10 × (0.1-)0.4-4(-5) cm, thin, not conspicuously reticulate;
surfaces glabrous, not glaucous.
blade 1-2(-3)-pinnate;
primary leaflets 7-11, mostly deeply 2-several-lobed, leaflets and larger lobes mostly ovate, 0.8-3.5 × 0.5-1.5 cm (lateral lobes nearly as wide as central portion), thin, not prominently reticulate;
surfaces glabrous, somewhat glaucous.
terminal, 1-flowered;
bracts absent.
terminal, 1-flowered.
bell-shaped;
sepals distally strongly spreading to recurved, violet-blue, lanceolate, 2.5-5 cm, margins proximally thick and tomentose, distally broadly expanded, 2-6 mm wide, thin, crispate, less conspicuously tomentose than proximal portion, or glabrate, tips acuminate, abaxially glabrous.
broadly urn- to bell-shaped;
sepals purple, lanceolate, 1.5-3 cm, margins narrowly expanded distally to ca. 1 mm wide, thin, crispate, tomentose, tips acuminate, spreading, abaxially sparsely pubescent.
bodies appressed-puberulent;
beak 2-3.5 cm, appressed-puberulent.
bodies appressed-long-pubescent;
beak 2-3 cm, glabrous or inconspicuously appressed-pubescent, sparsely so toward tip.
= 16.
Clematis crispa
Clematis bigelovii
Clematis crispa is highly variable in leaflet width, and conspicuous variation may occur on a single plant (R.O. Erickson 1943); no discontinuity or geographic correlation exists that would permit the recognition of varieties. The dilated, petaloid sepal tips and thin, crispate, broadly expanded sepal margins are diagnostic for this species.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Clematis bigelovii is locally common and is restricted to New Mexico and a few sites in Arizona. Although usually grouped with C. hirsutissima because of its scarcely viny habit, this species appears to represent the extreme expression of clinal variation including C. pitcheri var. dictyota and, at the other extreme, eastern populations of C. pitcheri var. pitcheri; it might well be treated as C. pitcheri var. bigelovii (Torrey) B.L. Robinson.
Clematis palmeri Rose is represented by a small number of specimens from New Mexico and one from eastern Arizona, and its distinctness as a species has been questioned. The few published descriptions scarcely suffice to indicate its distinguishing features and are sometimes at variance with each other and with specimens so identified by R.O. Erickson (1943) or others. Almost all specimens were found where C. bigelovii was reported nearby. Pending further studies, it seems likely that C. palmeri comprises somewhat aberrant specimens of C. bigelovii, C. hirsutissima var. scottii, and/or C. pitcheri var. dictyota, perhaps also some herbarium sheets of flowering and fruiting material inadvertently collected from different species, and/or hybrids involving the species named above in one or more combinations.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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