A long vine, climbing over bushes in low woodlands, and along fences and watercourses. Stems somewhat woody below but only the root perennial in the north at least. Leaves opposite, glabrous, trifoliate; leaflets broadly ovate, acute at the apex, toothed or lobed, sometimes slightly cordate. Flowers in leafy panicles, white, polygamo-dioecious, two-thirds to 1 ¼ inches broad when expanded. Sepals usually four, spreading, petallike; petals none; stamens numerous, spreading; filaments glabrous; pistils numerous. In fruit the styles become an inch long or more, plumose and persistent on the achenes (figure XVI).

Nova Scotia to Georgia, west to Manitoba and Tennessee. Flowering in midsummer, July to September.

Figure XVI Virgin's Bower (Clematis Virginiana Linnaeus), in fruit

Memoir 15 N. Y. State Museum

Plate 73 virgin's bower; woodbine; wild clematis Clematis virginiana