Common Name: BUTTERCUP FAMILY
Habit: Annual, perennial herb, woody vine [shrub], occasionally aquatic. Leaf: generally basal and cauline, alternate or opposite, simple or compound; petioles at base generally flat, occasionally sheathing or stipule-like. Inflorescence: cyme, raceme, panicle, or flowers 1. Flower: generally bisexual, generally radial; sepals 3--6(20), free, early-deciduous or withering in fruit, generally green; petals 0--many, generally free; stamens generally 5--many, staminodes generally 0; pistils 1--many, ovary superior, chamber 1, style 0--1, generally +- persistent as beak, ovules 1--many. Fruit: achene, follicle, berry, +- utricle in Trautvetteria, in aggregate or not, 1--many-seeded.
Genera In Family: +- 60 genera, 1700 species: worldwide, especially northern temperate, tropical mountains; many ornamental (Adonis, Aquilegia, Clematis, Consolida, Delphinium, Helleborus, Nigella). Toxicity: some highly TOXIC (Aconitum, Actaea, Delphinium, Ranunculus). Note: Taxa of Isopyrum in TJM (1993) moved to Enemion; Kumlienia moved to Ranunculus.
eFlora Treatment Author: Margriet Wetherwax & Dieter H. Wilken, family description, key to genera
Scientific Editor: Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Common Name: CLEMATIS, VIRGIN'S BOWER
Habit: Plant +- woody vine; occasionally dioecious. Leaf: generally 1--2-pinnate, cauline, opposite; petiole generally tendril-like; leaflets ovate to lanceolate, generally irregularly 2--3-lobed or coarsely toothed, occasionally entire. Inflorescence: 1-flowered to panicle, axillary [terminal]. Flower: unisexual; sepals generally 4, free, petal-like, white to cream [brightly colored]; petals 0; stamens many, free; pistils 5--many. Fruit: achene, each generally with elongate, feathery style.
Etymology: (Greek: twig) Note: Clematis drummondii Torr. & A. Gray undocumented for California.
eFlora Treatment Author: James S. Pringle & Frederick B. Essig
Reference: Pringle 1999 Clematis 1999:12--19
Unabridged Reference: Tamura 1987 Acta Phytotax Geobot 38:38--44