Clematis terniflora
Clematis bigelovii
sweet autumn clematis, sweet autumn virginsbower, yam-leaf clematis, yam-leaf virgin's-bower
Bigelow's clematis, Bigelow's leather flower
climbing with tendril-like petioles and leaf rachises, 3-6 m.
erect or sprawling, 0.1-0.6 m, short pubescent-pilose, sometimes sparsely so.
blade pinnately 3- or 5-foliolate;
leaflets ovate or broadly lanceolate to narrowly deltate, to 6.5 × 3.5 cm, margins entire;
surfaces abaxially glabrous or very sparingly appressed-strigose on major veins.
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.
axillary, 3-12-flowered cymes or compound cymes or paniculate with cymose subunits.
terminal, 1-flowered.
bisexual, often some unisexual (staminate) in same inflorescence;
pedicel 1-3.5 cm, slender;
sepals wide-spreading, not recurved, white, linear or elliptic to lanceolate or narrowly obovate, 0.9-2.2 cm, length ca. 2-3 times width, abaxially tomentose along margins, adaxially glabrous;
stamens ca. 50;
filaments glabrous;
staminodes absent;
pistils 5-10.
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.
broad, flat, conspicuously rimmed, minutely appressed-silky, sometimes sparsely so;
beak 2-6 cm.
bodies appressed-long-pubescent;
beak 2-3 cm, glabrous or inconspicuously appressed-pubescent, sparsely so toward tip.
Clematis terniflora
Clematis bigelovii
Clematis terniflora is commonly cultivated as an ornamental. It is widely naturalized in the eastern United States. The name C. paniculata J. F. Gmelin was incorrectly used for this species by Thunberg in 1794.
Some authors have recognized two or more varieties in this species, correlated with their distribution in Asia, but in the study by H.Hara (1975), all of the varietal names were reduced to synonymy.
(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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