Clematis ochroleuca

Stems erect to ± sprawling, not viny, 2-7 dm,, sparsely to ± densely pilose. Leaves simple. Leaf blade narrowly to broadly ovate, unlobed or rarely few-lobed, 3-14 × (1.5-)2.5-8(-9.5) cm, ± leathery, reticulate adaxially; surfaces abaxially moderately silky-pilose with spreading hairs or rarely nearly glabrous, not glaucous. Inflorescences terminal, flowers solitary; bracts absent. Flowers narrowly urn-shaped; sepals pale yellow to pale purple, lanceolate, 1-3.5 cm, margins not expanded, thin, not crispate, tomentose, tip obtuse, spreading to recurved, abaxially silky-pubescent. Achenes: bodies pilose, hairs appressed-ascending; beak yellowish brown to reddish brown, 3-6 cm, plumose. 2 n = 16.

Flowering spring. Dry to moist woods, thickets, roadsides, and other shady to open, ± disturbed sites, mostly on mafic substrates; 0-500 m; D.C., Ga., Md., N.J., N.Y., N.C., S.C., Va.

In New York, Clematis ochroleucra is known only from Staten Island and, formerly, from western Long Island (Brooklyn).

Stems erect, 2-6 dm, simple or branched, ±villous-tomentose, the branches seldom overtopping the central axis; lvs subsessile, ovate, to 12 cm, half as wide (or a little wider), rather light green, softly hairy beneath when young, glabrescent in age; peduncles elongating to 5-20 cm at maturity, regularly exceeding the uppermost lvs; fls solitary and terminal, cal urceolate; sep 2-3.5 cm, densely sericeous outside; base of the achenes appressed-puberulent with short hairs, these becoming longer distally, but always erect or ascending, as are also the lower hairs of the style; mature style (3-)3.5-6 cm, densely plumose; 2n=16. In woods and disturbed open places; s. N.Y. to Ga., mostly on the piedmont. May, June.

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

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