Monday, October 28, 2013

Plant Quiz - Answered

I recently posted the following plant quiz...
 
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Been a while... how about a cropped photo plant quiz?
 

Good luck!
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Ben and DenPro both correctly responded that this is a close-up of Clematis virginiana, Virgin's Bower.  Here's the original photo, prior to being cropped...

Note the plumose styles of Clematis virginiana in fruit.
... and here's another photo showing the feathery inflorescences made up of numerous plumose styles when the plant is in fruit.  Like most plants I've noticed this fall, Clematis virginiana seemed to flower and fruit profusely this year.

The dense inflorescence of Clematis virginiana in fruit.
During the summer, Clematis virginiana looks like this, a vine with flowers in axillary panicles, each with four white to cream-colored petaloid sepals, no petals, and numerous pistils in female flowers and stamens in male flowers.  The leaves are compound, often with three leaflets, each of which is toothed on the margins. The similar looking Clematis ternifolia, an invasive species from Asia, has five leaflets that are entire or merely crenate on the margins.

Clematis virginiana in flower.
Clematis virginiana grows in moist thickets, in wooded and open floodplains, and along fencerows throughout the eastern half of North America.  Taxonomically, it is placed in the family Ranunculaceae.

Nice job, Ben and DenPro!

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