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chaparral clematis, pipestem, pipestem clematis

Virginia whitehair leather flower

Stems

scrambling to climbing, 3-4 m. Leaf blade 3-foliolate;

leaflets ovate, largest leaflets usually 3-lobed, 1.5-6 × 1.5-5 cm;

terminal leaflet occasionally 3-cleft, margins usually toothed;

surfaces glabrous or sparsely silky.

erect, not viny, 2-4.5 dm, densely silky, hirsute, or ± tomentose with appressed hairs.

Leaves

blade rarely 1-pinnate, narrowly to broadly ovate, unlobed or sometimes few-lobed, 5-12 × 3-9.5 cm, leathery, ± prominently reticulate adaxially;

surfaces abaxially densely silky-tomentose with appressed hairs, not glaucous.

Inflorescences

axillary, flowers solitary, rarely 3-flowered cymes.

terminal, flowers solitary;

bracts absent.

Flowers

unisexual;

pedicel (including peduncle) stout, 3.5-11 cm;

sepals wide-spreading, not recurved, white to cream, ovate or elliptic to obovate or oblanceolate, 10-21 mm, abaxially and adaxially pilose;

stamens 50-100;

filaments glabrous;

staminodes absent or 50-100;

pistils 75-100.

broadly urn-shaped;

sepals pale yellow to rarely purple-tinged, lanceolate, 1.9-3.4 cm, margins not expanded or narrowly expanded to 1.7 mm wide, thin, not crispate, tomentose, tips obtuse, spreading, abaxially finely tomentose.

Achenes

asymmetric-ovate, not broadly orbiculate, 3-4 × 1.5-2 mm, not conspicuously rimmed, glabrous;

beak 3.5-5.5 cm.

body pilose, hairs of rim spreading;

beak (2.5-)3-4.5(-5.5) cm, plumose.

2n

= 16.

= 16.

Clematis lasiantha

Clematis coactilis

Phenology Flowering winter–spring (Jan–Jun). Flowering spring–early summer.
Habitat Chaparral, open woodlands Shale barrens, rarely on sandstone, dolomite, or limestone outcrops
Elevation 0-2000 m (0-6600 ft) 300-600 m (1000-2000 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; Mexico (Baja California)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
VA
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Clematis lasiantha is common in the Coast Ranges and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada of California.

The Shasta used pounded stems or chewed or burned roots of Clematis lasiantha medicinally in the treatment of colds (D. E. Moerman 1986).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Of conservation concern.

Clematis coactilis is known only from western Virginia. C. S. Keener (1967, 1975) suggested that this species may be a stabilized derivative of past hybridization between C. albicoma and C. ochroleuca.

In fruit, Clematis coactilis is distinguishable from C. ochroleuca by its combination of spreading to reflexed hairs on the achene rims and whitish to pale yellow (rarely tawny) hairs on the beaks, contrasting with the strongly ascending hairs on the achene rims and tawny (rarely yellowish white) hairs on the beaks of C. ochroleuca. This species and C. ochroleuca lack stomates on the adaxial surface of the leaves, whereas the closely related species C. albicoma, C. fremontii, and C. viticaulis have stomates on both leaf surfaces (C. S. Keener 1967).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 3. FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Ranunculaceae > Clematis > subg. Clematis Ranunculaceae > Clematis > subg. Viorna
Sibling taxa
C. addisonii, C. albicoma, C. baldwinii, C. bigelovii, C. catesbyana, C. coactilis, C. columbiana, C. crispa, C. drummondii, C. fremontii, C. glaucophylla, C. hirsutissima, C. ligusticifolia, C. morefieldii, C. occidentalis, C. ochroleuca, C. orientalis, C. pauciflora, C. pitcheri, C. recta, C. reticulata, C. socialis, C. tangutica, C. terniflora, C. texensis, C. versicolor, C. viorna, C. virginiana, C. vitalba, C. viticaulis, C. viticella
C. addisonii, C. albicoma, C. baldwinii, C. bigelovii, C. catesbyana, C. columbiana, C. crispa, C. drummondii, C. fremontii, C. glaucophylla, C. hirsutissima, C. lasiantha, C. ligusticifolia, C. morefieldii, C. occidentalis, C. ochroleuca, C. orientalis, C. pauciflora, C. pitcheri, C. recta, C. reticulata, C. socialis, C. tangutica, C. terniflora, C. texensis, C. versicolor, C. viorna, C. virginiana, C. vitalba, C. viticaulis, C. viticella
Synonyms C. albicoma var. coactilis
Name authority Nuttall: in J. Torrey and A. Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 9. (1838) (Fernald) Keener: J. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc. 83: 36. (1967)
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