Purple Clematis

The mother of all large-flowered varieties

This climber is the only other clematis together with the Old man’s beard that occurs in the wild in the Benelux countries. The word clematis comes from the Greek with clema meaning ‘twining plant’ and viticella the Latin diminutive for vitis meaning ‘vine’ or ‘creeper’. This species has single and double compound leaves, and flowers in July and August. The flowers are purplish-blue, sometimes pink or white, and occur singularly or in groups in the leaf axils. The fluffy achene fruits are easily dispersed by the wind.

This species has been cultivated since the 16th century and is the ancestor of all the large flowered clematis (there is even a ‘viticella group’ all bearing the characteristic wrinkled petals). The Italian clematis is distinguished from the Old man’s beard by their larger and purplish-blue colour on the inside of the flowers; the flowers of the Old Man’s beard are smaller and totally white. In the Old man’s beard the style of the fruit is twice as long as those of the Italian clematis, and feathery.

Just as with the Old man’s beard (and the buttercup) the Italian clematis is toxic because it contains protoanemonin, the blister-inducing toxin released on contact.

Ecology and habitat

The Italian clematis has grown in a number of places within the valley of the Meuse in Limburg for many years, on nutrient rich, damp ground on the edge of woods and hedges, and along watercourses. How this plant originating in southeast Europe and southwest Asia has managed to establish itself in the Meuse region of the Netherlands, is not known – probably a garden escape.

Threat

Over the past few decades wild populations of Clematis viticella have become greatly reduced through change in land use (such as hedge removal), the thickening of woodland vegetation and eutrophication.