Virgin's Bower (Clematis virginiana) is a common species found from Manitoba to Nova Scotia, south to Georgia, over to Louisiana and north to eastern Kansas. Its white flowers blossom in clusters that rise up out of the leaf axils. Male and female flowers occur on separate plants, the female flower possessing the sterile stamen. The flowers look like garden Clematis flowers, but smaller, and the 4 or 5 petals are not petals at all, but petal-like sepals.
Virgin's Bower lacks tendrils, which can be a real handicap if you're gonna get by in life as a vine. It supports itself by means of petioles, or twisted stems, which wrap around whatever they can get a hold of. It grows at the borders of woods, thickets, and moist places.
It has been known over the years by such names as Devil's Hair, Love Vine and Wild Hops. In folk medicine, it has been used in a tincture to treat irritation of the ovaries and urinary tract in women, and the bladder and testicles in men.
Leather-flower (C. glaucophylla), which grows in the woods, has nodding dull red bell-like flowers. Its petal-like sepals are leathery, hence the name. Its range is from Illinois, southern Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania south. Its folks names include Traveler's Joy and Headache Weed.
The flowers of Hyacinth Vine (C. crispa) are similarly bell-shaped, but with recurved petal-like sepals. These pale blue flowers are fragrant, and can be found from southeastern Virginia to Florida, west to Texas and southern Missouri.
The nodding flowers of Pine Hyacinth (C. baldwinii) also have recurved sepals, which are pink to bluish-lavender in color. They grow in the pinewoods and wet areas of the Florida peninsula.
Purple Clematis (C. verticillaris) has downy mauve sepals. It grows in rocky woods and slopes. Its range is from Manitoba to eastern Quebec, south to northeastern Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, northern Maryland and Delaware.
These species, which all grow wild in North America, are perhaps not as showy as their cultivated cousins, but they certainly dress up the landscape. And sometimes something subtle yet different is just what the woods needs. Any gardener with a love of flowering vines would certainly agree.
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