Clematis hirsutissima var. hirsutissima
Synonym: Coriflora hirsutissima
The
photo at right is a close-up of the calyx of sugar bowls. Note the numerous hairs
on the stem and outer surface of the sepals and the recurved tips. Photographed
at Grannyview along the road to Hat Point, Wallowa-Whitman National Forest............July
8, 1999.
Other names for sugar bowls include leather flower, vase vine, vase flower, lion's beard and Douglas' clematis.
Sugar bowls is an attractive perennial wildflower with several erect or spreading stems from 20-40 cm long. The stems are generally unbranched and the herbage consists of woolly hairs. The leaves are in pairs with the lowest pair small in size and entire to larger leaves on the middle and upper stem. These are 2-4 times pinnately compound with the leaflets narrowly lanceolate and up to 13 cm long.
The flowers are perfect, nodding, with usually one at the end of each stem. The calyx is leathery (See photos.) and bell-shaped. The 4 individual sepals are brownish-purple in color with recurved tips. Each measures 2-3 cm long. The outer surfaces of the sepals are copiously hairy while the inner surface is glabrous and more colorful.
Sugar bowls is an interesting wildflower suitable for gardens and natural areas east of the Cascade crest.
Sugar bowls is a wildflower of grasslands, sagebrush plains and ponderosa pine forests.
Sugar bowls may be found from south-central British Columbia south across eastern Washington (as far west as Badger Mt. in Douglas County) to central and eastern Oregon where it may be seen across the full extent of the Blue Mts. It is found eastward to Montana and Wyoming.
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