Foothills, montane. Streamsides. Spring.
Highway 145 north of Dolores, June 2, 2004.

From mid-to-late summer, Virgin’s Bower produces numerous small white flowers, but it is the great mound of leaves (six feet tall as pictured at left) and the very eye-catching mass of yellow/white, seed-carrying plumes (see the last two photographs below) that really attract attention.  The plant is very common at lower elevations along bottom lands and streams where it twines and climbs shrubs, trees, and, in this case, fences.

Linnaeus named this genus in 1753 and Thomas Nuttall named the species in 1838.  "Clematis" is Greek for "a shoot", and "ligusticifolia" is Latin for "Privet-like leaves".

Foothills, montane. Streamsides. Spring.
Highway 145 north of Dolores, July 1, 2004.

Foothills, montane. Streamsides. Spring.
Highway 145 north of Dolores, July 22, 2004.

This photograph and the next two show the fertilized ovaries swelling and exploding into a mass of fluff surrounding the seeds.

Foothills, montane. Streamsides. Spring.
Highway 145 north of Dolores, July 22, 2004.

Foothills, montane. Streamsides. Spring.
Near Dolores River, September 19, 2006.

This three foot by three foot mass of seeds and fluff is just a fourth of the size of this Clematis vine.