Clematis vitalba

Clematis vitalba (also known as Old man's beard and Traveller's Joy) is a shrub of the Ranunculaceae family.

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Description

Clematis vitalba is a climbing shrub with branched stems, deciduous leaves, and scented greeny-white flowers with fluffy underlying sepals. The fruits have an overlying silky appendage lengthwise on the plant.

The flowers of this species are eaten by the larvae of moths including The V-Pug and Double-striped Pug and the leaves by Willow Beauty.

Characteristics

• Reproductive organs:
  • Inflorescence type: biparous cyme
  • Sex: hermaphrodite
  • Type of pollination: entomophilous
• Seed:
  • Type of fruit: achene
  • Dissemination: With the wind
• Habitat and distribution:
  • Type of habitat: Mid-European shrubberies, mountainsides, in moderately eutrophic regions
  • Distribution: Holarctic

In New Zealand it is declared an "unwanted organism" and it cannot be sold, propagated or distributed. It is a threat to native plants since it grows vigorously and forms a canopy which smothers all other plants.