Sweet autumn clematis (Clematis terniflora)

Common Names: Leatherleaf clematis, yam-leaved clematis

Description: Introduced to the United States in the 1800s as an ornamental.

Habit: Perennial, semi-woody, climbing vine that can reach up to 30 ft. long.

Leaves: Opposite, compound, occur at intervals along stem; odd-pinnate with 3-5 leaflets; leaflets have entire margins, are 2-3 in. long, 1.5 in. wide and ovate or ovate-cordate in shape and glabrous.

Stems: Green in color, glabrous, terete when young. Older stems are brownish green in color.

Flowers: White in color, fragrant, star-shaped, four-petaled; blooms in late summer through the fall.

Fruit and seeds: Showy, with long, silver-gray, feather-like hairs attached.

Habitat: Native to Japan. Can be found in forest edges, right-of-ways, and streambanks.

Reproduction: By seed. Capable of producing prolific seed counts.

Credits: The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from the Invasive Plant Atlas of the United States.

Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org). Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).

---