3 pointed and widely toothed or lobed leaflets.
Preferred Habitat - Climbing over woodland borders, thickets,
roadside shrubbery, fences, and walls; rich, moist soil.
Flowering Season - July-September.
Distribution - Georgia and Kansas northward less common beyond
the Canadian border.

Fleecy white clusters of wild clematis, festooning woodland and
roadside thickets, vary so much in size and attractiveness that
one cannot but investigate the reason. Examination shows that
comparatively few of the flowers are perfect, that is, few
contain both stamens and pistils; the great majority are either
male - the more showy ones - or female - the ones so conspicuous
in fruit - and, like Quakers in meeting, the sexes are divided.
The plant that bears staminate blossoms produces none that are
pistillate, and vice versa - another marvelous protection against
that horror of the floral race, self-fertilization, and a case of
absolute dependence on insect help to perpetuate the race. Since
the clematis blooms while insect life is at its height, and after
most, if not all, of the Ranunculaceae have withdrawn from the
competition for trade; moreover, since its white color, so
conspicuous in shady retreats, and its accessible nectar attract
hosts of flies and the small, short-tongued bees chiefly, that
are compelled to work for it by transferring pollen while they
feed, it goes without saying that the vine is a winner in life's
race.

Charles Darwin, who made so many interesting studies of the power
of movement in various plants, devoted special attention to the
clematis clan, of which about one hundred species exist but,