Family |
Ranunculaceae
Clematis cirrhosa
L.
Clematis cirrhosa L.
(Nouvelle Flore du Liban et de la Syrie, vol. 2, Pl. XX nº 5; 1983)
Life-form & habit: Liana up to 10 m in length; trunk covered in fibrous grey-brown bark; wood deeply grooved beneath the bark. Older branches slightly angular, smooth and glabrous; young branches glabrous or slightly pubescent at the nodes.
Leaves: Opposite, petiolate, green, somewhat pubescent when young then glabrescent. Blades usually simple, dentate or crenate with large teeth, ovate to ovate-oblong, often cordate at base, acute or obtuse at apex.
Inflorescence & flowers: Solitary or in groups of 2–4; large (2–10 cm in diameter), campanulate. A small involucre of two green entire bracts subtends the flower.
Sepals: 4–5, ovate-oblong, with 3 branching nerves, silky-pubescent on the outside.
Stamens: Filaments flattened at base, whitish; anthers yellow, linear; stamens as long as or longer than the styles.
Fruit: Achenes compressed, ovate, brown, pubescent, 5 mm long, subtended by a small stipe, apex prolonged by an accrescent, feather-like style up to 5 cm long.
Phenology: Flowers from October to February.
Habitat & elevation: Hedges, bushy and wooded habitats.
Lebanese distribution: Ct. Saïda, Borj Brajné, Nahr Ghadir, Zoukh Mikhael, Beirut, Tripoli; Sud. Rmaïche; Mi. Ghazir, Chouite; ‘Akkar: Mengès.
Syrian distribution: NLatt. Kessab; Mi. Bdama; K.D. Kurd Dagh; Hour. Mass'adi.
Native range: Algeria, Baleares, Corse, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Greece, Italy, Kriti, Lebanon-Syria, Libya, Morocco, NW. Balkan Pen., Palestine, Portugal, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Tunisia, Türkey, Türkey-in-Europe. (KEW)
Introduced into: France, Great Britain. (KEW)