软萼铁线莲 ruan e tie xian lian

Vines woody. Branches subterete, 10-grooved, puberulous; bud scales triangular, 5--10 mm, leathery, appressed puberulous. Leaves ternate; petiole 4.5--8 cm; leaflet blades ovate or rhombic-ovate, 2- or 3-lobed or undivided, 4.8--9 × 3.5--5.6 cm, papery, both surfaces appressed puberulous, base rounded or broadly cuneate, margin coarsely dentate, apex acute; basal veins nearly flat. Flowers 2 or 3, borne with ca. 2 leaves from axillary buds of old branches, 6--10.5 cm in diam.; pedicel 14--22.5 cm, densely puberulous. Sepals 4, white, spreading, oblong-oblanceolate or broadly oblanceolate, 2.9--4.9 × 0.9--1.9 cm, abaxially densely appressed puberulous, adaxially appressed puberulous, margin velutinous, apex acuminate or cuspidate. Stamens 6--16 mm, glabrous; filaments linear; anthers linear, 3.5--5.5 mm, apex obtuse. Ovaries distally densely pubescent; style ca. 9 mm, densely villous. Fl. Jun.

* Forest margins; ca. 2800 m. S Xizang (Nang Xian).

Clematis tongluensis var. tongluensis occurs in the Himalayas.