Clematis viticella L.
Family: Ranunculaceae
Italian Leather-Flower
[Viticella viticella Small]
Images
not available

Vines 2-4(-6) m. Leaf blade: leaflets 3-7, proximal leaflets sometimes 3-foliolate, lanceolate to broadly ovate or elliptic, unlobed or 1-3-lobed, 1.5-7 cm, somewhat leathery, margins entire. Flowers: sepals 4, blue to violet or rose-violet, 1.5-4 cm, length ca. 1.2-2 times width, abaxially pubescent; stamens green; beak glabrous.

Flowering summer-fall. Roadsides, thickets and other secondary habitats; 200 m; introduced; Ont.; native to Europe.

Clematis viticella has also been reported from Quebec, New York, and Tennessee, but the reports have not been verified. It probably should be expected elsewhere.

A Eurasian climber with blue to purple or rosy fls 3-5 cm wide, lacking staminodes, and with a glabrous style, occasionally escaped from cult.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.