1. Clematis catesbyana Pursh (Catesby’s leather flower, satin curls)
Map 2349
Plants mostly
dioecious, sometimes incompletely so, the stems woody (at least toward the
base), twining, 2–6 m long. Well-developed leaves pinnately 5-foliate,
herbaceous in texture, the minor veins not raised, the leaflets toothed and
usually shallowly 3-lobed, the upper surface green, the undersurface hairy
along the main veins, paler but not glaucous. Flowers in dense clusters
(cymes), only occasionally perfect. Perianth saucer-shaped, the sepals 6–9(–14)
mm long, spreading horizontally, white or cream-colored, not thickened or
leathery, the margins relatively smooth, the outer surface hairy, the inner
surface with a few scattered hairs. Fruits with the beak 2.5–3.5 cm long,
plumose with long spreading hairs. June–August.
Scattered in the
eastern and southern portions of the Ozark Division (southeastern U.S. west to
Kansas and Louisiana). Openings and margins of mesic upland forests and banks
of streams and rivers; also roadsides, mostly on dolomite and chert substrates.
Plants of this
taxon were originally mistaken for C. virginiana (Steyermark, 1963). The
species was first reported from Missouri by Essig (1990).