Goat's-beard

Clematis aristata is a vigorous evergreen climber of the buttercup family with woody, twining stems reaching 6-10 m in length and producing fibrous bark that strips longitudinally. Leaves are opposite, compound with three glossy dark-green, ovate to lanceolate leaflets 3-8 cm long, with toothed margins and acuminate tips; the rachis and petiolules twine to support the climb. The species is dioecious, bearing fragrant flowers in axillary or terminal panicles. Each flower is 3-6 cm across with four pure white, narrowly elliptic petaloid sepals and numerous prominent cream stamens; true petals are absent. After flowering, female plants produce dense, plumose seedheads, each achene bearing a long, feathery, twisted style 3-4 cm long that gives the species the common name 'old man's beard.' Native to eucalypt forests and rainforest margins of eastern Australia, it flowers in spring.