Traveller's Joy

Clematis vitalba

Please keep in mind that it is illegal to uproot a plant without the landowner's consent and care should be taken at all times not to damage wild plants. Wild plants should never be picked for pleasure and some plants are protected by law.
For more information please download the BSBI Code of Conduct PDF document.

Plant Data

Flowering Months:

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

Order:

Ranunculales

Family:

Ranunculaceae (Buttercup)

Also in this family:

Bulbous Buttercup, Celery-leaved Buttercup, Columbine, Common Meadow-rue, Common Water Crowfoot, Creeping Buttercup, Globeflower, Greater Spearwort, Green Hellebore, Lesser Celandine, Lesser Meadow-rue, Lesser Spearwort, Love-in-a-Mist, Marsh Marigold, Meadow Buttercup, Mountain Clematis, Stinking Hellebore, Thread-leaved Water Crowfoot, Winter Aconite, Wood Anemone

Type:

Deciduous shrub

Life Cycle:

Perennial

Maximum Size:

30 metres spread

Habitats:

Grassland, hedgerows, riverbanks, roadsides, sand dunes, scrub, seaside, wasteland, woodland.

Flower:

White, 4 petals

Greyish-white plumes which give the plant it's alternative common name of 'Old Man's Beard'.

Fruit:

An achene. The fruits have long, woolly white appendages attached. These persist throughout the winter.

Leaves:

Our only climber with opposite, pinnate leaves. Sometimes the leaflets are toothed. Individual leaflets can reach as much as 10cm in length. Deciduous.

Aroma:

Slightly pungent.

Other Names:

Beggar's Plant, Bind-with, Biting Clematis, Boy's Bacca, Devil's Twine, Father Christmas, Hedge Vine, Lady's Bower, Love, Maiden's Hair, Maiden's Honesty, Old Man, Old Man's Beard, Smoke Weed, Smoke Wood, Smoking Cane, Virgin's Bower, White Vine, Wild Clematis.

Frequency (UK):

Common

Distribution Map

Reproduced by kind permission of the BSBI.

Click to open an Interactive Map