Clematis hexapetala

Clematis hexapetala is an erect, perennial herb of the Ranunculaceae, growing roughly 30 to 100 cm tall from a short woody rootstock bearing dense clusters of slender, cord-like roots. Unlike its scrambling relatives, this species is largely non-climbing. The opposite leaves are pinnately or bipinnately divided into narrow, leathery, linear to lance-shaped leaflets with entire margins and prominent parallel veins. The flowers are borne in terminal and axillary cymes and lack true petals; instead they display six (occasionally five to eight) spreading, petaloid sepals that are white and densely silky-hairy on the outer surface, surrounding numerous yellow stamens. Flowering occurs in summer. The fruit is a head of flattened achenes, each tipped with a long, feathery, persistent plumose style that aids wind dispersal. Native to northern China, Mongolia, and the Russian Far East, it grows on dry grassy slopes, steppe, and open scrub.