Clematis songarica Bunge

A semi-woody, scarcely climbing plant 4 or 5 ft high, with slender, furrowed, not downy stems. Leaves simple, lanceolate to linear; 11⁄2 to 4 in. long, 1⁄4 to 11⁄4 in. wide; margins either entire or coarsely and angularly toothed, quite glabrous, and of a greyish or glaucous green, with three prominent veins; stalk 1⁄2 to 11⁄4 in. long. Flowers yellowish white produced on stalked cymes 3 to 6 in. long, both axillary and terminal; each flower is 3⁄4 to 1 in. across, on a slender stalk 1 to 2 in. long. Sepals downy outside, glabrous within. Seed-vessels with plumed styles.

Native of S. Siberia, Turkestan, Mongolia, and the region of the river Sungari, from which it takes its name; sent to Kew in 1880 by E. Regel of St Petersburg. Both entire leaves and leaves with jagged margins occur on the same plant, the former usually as basal leaves of flowering branches, springing from the axils of leaves of the latter type. The whole plant has a grey-green tinge similar to that of C. orientalis, but its simple leaves distinguish it.