Clematis terniflora DC.

Japanese Virgin's Bower; Sweet Autumn Clematis; Yam Leaf Clematis

Vine

Perennial

Vascular

Japanese Virgin's Bower is an introduced herbaceous twining vine in the Buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). It is native to Asia but is widely cultivated in the eastern United States. In Alabama it can be found state wide. Japanese Virgin's Bower occurs on vacant lots, in urban woodlands, along streams, on roadsides, and in forest edges. In the southern part of the state it is evergreen, in north Alabama it usually sheds its leaves and may die back to ground level each year. The vines are up to 25 feet in length, green in color, and pubescent or glabrous. It climbs by tendril-like leaf petioles and rachises that wrap around other vegetation. Leaves are opposite, petiolate, and pinnately 3-5 foliolate. The leaflets are ovate to lanceolate in outline, entire, and glabrous or sparsely pubescent on the veins. The foliage is dark green and may be variegated with spots of a light green or silvery green color. Flowers are produced in axillary cymes or panicles. The flowers have 4 spreading liner or elliptic white sepals and no petals. The sepals are pubescent along their margins. Each flower has 50 or more white stamens. Some flowers are staminate or bisexual. The bisexual flowers have 5-10 pistils. The fruit is a broad flat achene with a conspicuous rim and a long persistent style. The style is pubescent with long hairs. Japanese Virgin's Bower is listed as a Category 2 Invasive Species by the Alabama Invasive Plant Council.--A. Diamond

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Not Native FAC- (NWPL)

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