Flora of North America species comparison

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Clematis terniflora

Clematis morefieldii

sweet autumn clematis, sweet autumn virginsbower, yam-leaf clematis, yam-leaf virgin's-bower

huntsville vasevine, Morefield's clematis, Morefield's leather-flower
Stems

climbing with tendril-like petioles and leaf rachises, 3-6 m.

viny, to 5 m, cobwebby-tomentose and pilose.
Leaf

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-pinnate;

leaflets 4-10 plus additional tendril-like terminal leaflet, narrowly to broadly ovate, unlobed or 2-3-lobed, 3.5-10 × 2-6.5 cm, thin, reticulate;

surfaces abaxially densely silky-pilose, not glaucous.
Inflorescences

axillary, 3-12-flowered cymes or compound cymes or paniculate with cymose subunits.

axillary, 1-5-flowered;

bracts at or near base of peduncle/pedicel.
Flowers

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.

urn-shaped;

sepals pinkish, suffused with green, oblong-lanceolate, 2-2.5 cm, margins not expanded, thick, not crispate, tomentose, tips acuminate, slightly spreading to short-reflexed, abaxially densely silky-pubescent.
Achenes

broad, flat, conspicuously rimmed, minutely appressed-silky, sometimes sparsely so;

beak 2-6 cm.

bodies silky-pubescent;

beak 3-3.5 cm, plumose.

Clematis terniflora

Clematis morefieldii
Phenology Flowering summer (Jul–Sep). Flowering spring–early summer.
Habitat Roadsides, thickets, and other secondary sites, edges of woods near creeks Open woods among limestone boulders
Elevation 0-1000 m (0-3300 ft) 200-300 m (700-1000 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; CT; FL; GA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; MO; MS; NC; NE; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; WV; ON; native to Asia (China, Korea, Japan) [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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.)

Of conservation concern.

Clematis morefieldii is known only from limestone uplands east of Huntsville, Madison County, Alabama.

From all variants of the closely related Clematis viorna, C. morefieldii differs in the cobwebby tomentose as well as villous pubescence of its stems, and in having bracts at or very near the base of the peduncle rather than well above the base.

(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. lasiantha, C. ligusticifolia, C. morefieldii, C. occidentalis, C. ochroleuca, C. orientalis, C. pauciflora, C. pitcheri, C. recta, C. reticulata, C. socialis, C. tangutica, 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. coactilis, C. columbiana, C. crispa, C. drummondii, C. fremontii, C. glaucophylla, C. hirsutissima, C. lasiantha, C. ligusticifolia, 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. dioscoreifolia, C. dioscoreifolia var. robusta, C. maximowicziana
Name authority de Candolle: Syst. Nat. 1: 137. (1817) Kral: Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 74: 665. (1987)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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