whiteleaf leather flower, Clematis glaucophylla

Gotta love Clematis! The variety of flower forms is amazing. So why would you kill them? That alone is almost enough to put me off baseball. Years ago there was a nice collection of vines on the stadium fence at Michigan State. Then some grounds keepers decided to redo the fence. Apparently no one thought to let the botany people know. Now they've got a very nice fence. Strike two! Leather flowers get their name from those thick sepals, united much of their length. Other clematis have sepals free to the base, as one would expect of the buttercup family. Whiteflower grows in AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MO, MS, NC, OK, SC, TN(E), and VA. Michigan State U., 10/8/80.