''Clematis montana'', the mountain clematis, also Himalayan clematis or anemone clematis, is a flowering plant in the buttercup family

Ranunculaceae Ranunculaceae (buttercup or crowfoot family; Latin "little frog", from "frog") is a family of over 2,000 known species of flowering plants in 43 genera, distributed worldwide. The largest genera are ''Ranunculus'' (600 species), ''Delphinium' ...

. A vigorous

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

climber, in late spring it is covered with a mass of small blooms for a period of about four weeks. The odorous flowers are white or pink, four-petalled, with prominent yellow anthers. It is native to mountain areas of Asia from

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Cultivation

''Clematis montana'' is a popular garden plant in temperate regions, with the ability to scramble up and over unsightly features such as sheds and fences. Left unchecked it can grow to . The plant attracts bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Numerous varieties and cultivars have been bred for horticultural use, including: *''C. montana'' 'Alexander' *''C. montana'' var. ''grandiflora'' AGM with larger flowers than the species *''C. montana'' var. ''rubens'' **'Broughton Star' AGM - double, deep pink flowers **'Elizabeth' - with pale pink flowers **'Freda' **'Pink Perfection' **'Tetrarose' AGM has deep pink flowers. *''C. montana'' var. ''wilsonii'' - later flowering, chocolate scented Those cultivars marked AGM have gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. History The Award of Garden Merit ...

Etymology

''Clematis'' is the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

name for several climbing plants, and is a diminutive of ''klema'', meaning "vine shoot".Gledhill, David (2008). "The Names of Plants". Cambridge University Press. (hardback), (paperback). pp 111, 263 The Latin

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''montana'' refers to mountains or coming from mountains.

Collections

The UK national collection of '' Clematis montana'' is held at By The Way, at Woodfalls, near

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

, Wiltshire, within the

New Forest National Park The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, featu ...

. Hundreds of clematis are integrated within the garden, many grown from British Clematis Society seed.

References

montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

Flora of Afghanistan Flora of Myanmar Flora of China Flora of the Indian subcontinent Flora of Taiwan Plants described in 1817 {{Ranunculales-stub