Clematis flaccida Small

Weak Stemed Leather Flower; Vase Vine

Herb

Perennial

Vascular

Weak Stemmed Leather Flower is a native herbaceous perennial vine in the Buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). It is native to central and northern Alabama. Weak Stemmed Leather Flower occurs along streams and rivers, in prairie edges, in thin woods, along woodland edges, and on roadsides. It is a vine climbing by twining. The vines are up to 8 feet in length and are angled, pubescent, and reddish-brown or green in color. The leaves are opposite and pinnately compound with 2-4 leaflets. The leaflets are elliptic to ovate-lanceolate in outline, entire or 1-2 lobed, and pubescent on the lower surface. The leaves are thin, not conspicuously reticulate, and not glaucous. Flowers are solitary from the axils of the leaves. The flowers are bell-shaped, pubescent, and with 4 thick, pubescent, pale purplish sepals with white recurved tips. The inside of the flower is white. The long petioles have a pair of conspicuous ovate bracts slightly below the middle. The fruit is a head of achenes. The achenes are appressed pubescent with long, pubescent, twisted beaks.—A. Diamond

There has been much taxonomic confusion about the VIORNA group within Clematis which has impacted the recognition of several species including C. flaccida Small. Clematis flaccida (and others) has long been and wrongly identified as C. viorna L. a result of some authors treating C. flaccida subsumed in synonymy under Clematis viorna. However, C. flaccida is distinct from C. viorna based on a suite of characters including flower color, leaflet divisions, etc. It appears that true Clematis viorna is a southern Appalachian species but does not reach Alabama (Estes pers. comm.) Specimens below identified as C. viorna should be reexamined but more than likely all are C. flaccida or some other Clematis species--B. Keener

Native

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