Flora of North America species comparison

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Clematis vitalba

Clematis terniflora

evergreen clematis, old-man's beard, Traveler's-joy, Traveler's-joy clematis, white virgin's-bower

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

climbing with tendril-like petioles and leaf-rachises, to 12 m. Leaf blade pinnately 5-foliolate;

leaflets cordiform, 8 × (2-)3-5(-6) cm, margins entire to regularly crenate or dentate;

surfaces abaxially minutely pubescent on veins, adaxially glabrous.

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

axillary and terminal, (3-)5-22-flowered cymes.

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

bisexual;

pedicel 1-1.5 cm, slender;

sepals wide-spreading, not recurved, white to cream, elliptic or oblanceolate to obovate, ca. 1 cm, length ca. 2 times width, abaxially and adaxially tomentose;

stamens ca. 50;

filaments glabrous;

staminodes absent;

pistils 20 or more.

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.
Achenes

nearly terete, not conspicuously rimmed, densely pubescent;

beak ca. 3.5 cm.

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

beak 2-6 cm.

Clematis vitalba

Clematis terniflora
Phenology Flowering summer (Jun–Aug). Flowering summer (Jul–Sep).
Habitat Roadsides, waste ground, secondary growth Roadsides, thickets, and other secondary sites, edges of woods near creeks
Elevation 0-100 m (0-300 ft) 0-1000 m (0-3300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
ME; OR; WA; BC; ON; native to Europe; n Africa [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
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]
Discussion

Clematis vitalba is naturalized in only a few sites in eastern North America and northwestern Oregon to the Puget Sound.

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

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.)
Source FNA vol. 3. FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Ranunculaceae > Clematis > subg. Clematis Ranunculaceae > Clematis > subg. Clematis
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. terniflora, C. texensis, C. versicolor, C. viorna, C. virginiana, 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. 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
Synonyms C. dioscoreifolia, C. dioscoreifolia var. robusta, C. maximowicziana
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 544. (1753) de Candolle: Syst. Nat. 1: 137. (1817)
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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