Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Purple Clematis
Clematis occidentalis
Buttercup family (Ranunculaceae)

This is a hard plant to find in the shade of conifers. It commonly grows just 2-5 feet high, climbing in other vegetation. The plant would go unnoticed if it were not for the large blue-violet flowers attracting our attention. Look for Clematis occidentalis near the bottom of moist mountainsides. The very similar C. columbiana (with ) grows in southwestern counties of Colorado, while, C. occidentalis grows in northern Colorado counties and up into Canada.

Clematis is the ancient name given by the Greek physician and botanist Dioscorides to a climbing plant with long supple branches.


©2012 Walter Siegmund

Description

woody vine, hardly climbing. Herbage to long-hairy. Leaves bi- or triternate with the ultimate segments often or . Flower stem deeply curved just below flower. Flowers solitary, bell-shaped and nodding, violet-blue to lilac fading red-purple, petals to two inches long. very strongly .

Field Marks

Slender woody low vine with large blue-lilac flowers.

© Al Schneider

lobe -- Being divided by clefts.

achene -- a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. For example, a rose hip holds a few achenes.

serrate -- toothed with asymmetrical teeth pointing forward; like the cutting edge of a saw.

Like the teeth on a saw, leaves and other surfaces can have toothed edges.

plumose -- Feathery, i.e., having hairs or fine bristle on both sides of the main axis. Often used in describing the shape of pappus hairs.

glabrous -- smooth, glossy, having no bristles or hair-like structures. Bald.

leaflets -- Each little leaf-like thing in a compound leaf is a leaflet.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.