Aerial stems viny, climbing or trailing, 0.5-1.5(-3.5) m. Leaf blade 2-3-ternate; leaflets mostly lanceolate to ovate, few-lobed, lobes often over 5 mm wide, thin, margins serrate. Flowers: sepals violet-blue, rarely white, 2.5-6 cm.

Flowering spring-early summer(-fall). Rocky, open woods and thickets; 1700-3200 m; Ariz., Colo., Idaho, Mont., N.Mex., Tex., Utah, Wyo.

Clematis columbiana var. columbiana flowers in early summer at high elevations and occasionally flowers in fall on new growth. The taxon was erroneously included in C. alpina Linnaeus by D.S. Correll and M.C. Johnston (1970).

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Vine

General: Herbaceous, vining perennials, aerial stems climbing or trailing, 0.5-3.5 m long, somewhat woody towards the base.

Leaves: Blade 2-3-ternate, leaflets mostly lanceolate to ovate, few-lobed, lobes often over 5 mm wide, thin, margins serrate, few-toothed, or cleft.

Flowers: Purple to violet-blue or rarely white, prefect, large and showy with petal-like speals, sepals 4, thin, spreading, 2.5-6 cm long, surfaces glabrous or inconspicuously pubescent, stamens green and spreading, the outermost often sterile, the filaments somewhat petaloid, flowers solitary or very few.

Fruits: Achenes glabrous to densely pubescent, with styles 3-5 cm long.

Ecology: Found on rich soils in rocky, open woods and thickets, from 5,500-10,500 ft (1676-3200 m); flowering spring-fall.

Distribution: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Wyoming.

Notes: ITIS and USDA Plants have the accepted name for this species as Clematis columbiana var. columbiana as of November 2012.

Ethnobotany: Unknown, but other species in the genus have uses.

Synonyms: Clematis pseudoatragene var. pseudoalpina, Clematis columbiana var. columbaiana

Editor: LCrumbacher2012

Etymology: Clematis in Greek means "long, lithe branches" and is an ancient name for some climbing plant, the meaning of pseudoalpina is unknown.