Erect silky leather-flower, curly-heads

Viorna ochroleuca (Aiton) Small

Stems erect to ± sprawling, not viny, 2-7 dm,, sparsely to ± densely pilose. Leaves simple. Leaf blade narrowly to broadly ovate, unlobed or rarely few-lobed, 3-14 × (1.5-)2.5-8(-9.5) cm, ± leathery, reticulate adaxially; surfaces abaxially moderately silky-pilose with spreading hairs or rarely nearly glabrous, not glaucous. Inflorescences terminal, flowers solitary; bracts absent. Flowers narrowly urn-shaped; sepals pale yellow to pale purple, lanceolate, 1-3.5 cm, margins not expanded, thin, not crispate, tomentose, tip obtuse, spreading to recurved, abaxially silky-pubescent. Achenes: bodies pilose, hairs appressed-ascending; beak yellowish brown to reddish brown, 3-6 cm, plumose. 2 n = 16.

Flowering spring. Dry to moist woods, thickets, roadsides, and other shady to open, ± disturbed sites, mostly on mafic substrates; 0-500 m; D.C., Ga., Md., N.J., N.Y., N.C., S.C., Va.

In New York, Clematis ochroleucra is known only from Staten Island and, formerly, from western Long Island (Brooklyn).