Clematis orientalis Linnaeus var. glauca Maximowicz.

Vines suffruticose. Branches shallowly 4--8-grooved, sparsely puberulous to subglabrous. Leaves 1- or 2-pinnate; petiole 2.5--8.5 cm; leaflet blades narrowly elliptic, oblong, or ovate, 1.5--5 × 1--1.8 cm, papery, undivided or 3-lobed, both surfaces glabrous, abaxially sometimes very sparsely puberulous on basal veins, glabrescent, glaucous, base rounded to broadly cuneate, margin entire or to 2-dentate, apex obtuse to ± acute and mucronate; basal veins abaxially nearly flat, inconspicuous. Cymes axillary, (1--)3-flowered to rarely many flowered; peduncle 2--4.5(--8) cm; bracts narrowly oblong, lanceolate, or ovate, 0.4--2(--5) cm, undivided or 3-lobed. Flowers 1.6--3 cm in diam. Pedicel 2--7 cm, sparsely puberulous. Sepals 4, yellow, ascending, narrowly ovate to lanceolate, 1.3--2 × 0.4--0.8 cm, abaxially glabrous except for velutinous margin, adaxially glabrous or apically puberulous, apex acute. Stamens 7--9 mm; filaments puberulous; anthers narrowly oblong to linear, 2.2--4 mm, glabrous, apex obtuse. Ovaries puberulous. Style 6--10 mm, densely villous. Achenes narrowly ovate to obovate, ca. 3 × 1.6 mm, puberulous; persistent style to 5 cm, plumose. Fl. Jun--Aug, fr. Aug--Oct.

Slopes, scrub; 1000--2600 m. Gansu, E Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia (Siberia)].