Southern Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Clematis crispa L.
- Family: Buttercup (Ranunculaceae)
- Flowering: April-August
- Field Marks: This viny Clematis has solitary flowers which are not subtended by bracts.
- Habitat: Alluvial swamps, thickets, floodplains, bay shores, moist hammocks, swamps, wet woodlands, marshes, wet savannas and flatwoods, along rivers and streams.
- Habit: Climbing vine or ascending herb.
- Stems: Climbing or ascending, smooth, ribbed, up to several feet long.
- Leaves: Opposite, simple or more usually compound, with 2-5 leaflets; leaflets narrowly lanceolate to elliptic to ovate, lobed or unlobed, usually pointed at the tip, tapering or rounded at the base, smooth, up to 3 1/2 inches long, up to 2 inches wide.
- Flowers: Solitary, terminating each branch, borne on a stalk up to 4 inches long.
- Sepals: 4, petal-like, free from each other, bluish or rose, thick and spongy, long pointed at the tip, wavy along the edges, up to 2 inches long, white-hairy on the inner face.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: Numerous.
- Pistils: Numerous; ovaries superior.
- Fruits: Achenes flat, nearly spherical, up to 2/5 inch in diameter; styles persistent, hairy, up to 1 1/2 inches long.
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