Clematis cirrhosa L.
Eng.: Early Virgin’s-bower. Spa.: Clemátide, videblanca, vidarra. Fre.: Clématite à vrilles. Ara.: Zenzu, cheham el atrus, rhamus, luaï, luaya, chaabata. Tam.: Timedjerdint, tuzimt.
Climbing plant, deciduous, hermaphrodite, that thanks to its tendrils can climb on trees up to 10 m. Stems woody, sarmentose, covered in a fissured and fibrous greyish-brown bark. Branches green, glabrous or slightly villous in the internodes. Leaves simple, opposite, petioled, green, glabrescent, variable in shape but ± trilobed, oval or oval-oblong, cordate at the base, with dentate or serrate margin, teeth large. Usually the leaves fall in the warmest and driest period of the summer. Flowers large (2.5-4 cm diameter), pendant, bell-shaped, born in the leaf axils, at the end of the branches. Perianth a single whorl of 4-6 yellowish-white petaloid parts that give the appearance of a bell. Fruit or achenes compressed (3-6 mm), oval, pubescent, with a feathery style up to 6 cm.
Flowering:
October to February.
Fruiting:
In spring.
Habitat:
Forests, thickets and rocky outcrops in plains and low mountains, of semiarid to subhumid areas.
Distribution:
Mediterranean region. In North Africa it is common in the more humid parts of the Mediterranean area, from Morocco to Libya, absent from the steppic and pre Saharan areas.
Observations:
Polymorphic species from which several forms have been described. Among the most curious are: f. purpurascens Willk, with perianth parts often purple, and f. gigantiflora Kuntze, with flowers 6-10 cm in diameter, both in east-central Tell.
Conservation status:
Rare but widely distributed species, it is not considered threatened. Currently, it is not assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the Livre Rouge de la flore vasculaire du Maroc (Fennane, 2021) it has been considered as Least Concern (LC).