Shrubby Clematis

Growth habit

Herbaceous

Perennation

Long-lived polycarpic perennial

Native distribution

Eastern China

Location

Comstock Knoll and Rhododendron Collection

Source of plant

US National Arboretum, Barry Yinger, Wayside Gardens

Description

Herbaceous perennial reaching 3' in height with sprawling erect stems that fall outward from the central woody base. Leaves are large, ternate, somewhat tomentose; flowers are light blue, hyacinthlike in shape, clustered in the axils of the upper leaves. (DS 328) Subshrubs or perennial herbs, 30-100cm tall. Stems usually branched; branches 6-10-grooved, appressed puberulous, glabrescent. Leaves ternate; petiole 2.5-14cm, puberulous; leaflet blades broadly ovate, pentagonical, suborbicular, elliptic, or ovate, 2.5-16x2.5-14cm, papery, often 3-lobed, both surfaces appressed puberulous, glabrescent, abaxially often reticulate, base truncate, rounded, or broadly cuneate, margin incised to dentate, apex short acuminate to acute; basal veins abaxially prominent. Compound cymes terminal or axillary, 7-many flowered, often paniclelike; peduncle 4-8cm, densely puberulous; bracts petiolate, pentagonal to broadly ovate, 1-3.5cm, 3-parted or -sect. Flowers polygamous, ca. 1.5cm in diameter. Pedicel 0.8-3.5cm, densely puberulous to velutinous. Sepals 4, blue to purple, erect, narrowly oblong to spatulate-oblong, 1.5-2.4x 0.3-0.7cm, slightly widened toward apex, abaxially densely appressed sericeous-puberulous to velutinous adaxially glabrous, apex obtuse and recurved. Stamens 0.9-1.1cm; filaments apically with a few short hairs; anthers linear, 3.2-5mm, abaxially pilose on connective, apex with a 0.2-0.5mm apicula. Ovaries puberulous. Style 3-4mm, densely villous. Achenes elliptic, 3-5x2-2.8mm, puberulous; persistent style ca. 2.5cm, plumose. Flowers August-September, fruits in October. (DS 696)

USDA Hardiness Zone

5