Clematis orientalisL.

Oriental virginsbower

WFO wfo-0000610389 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Clematis orientalis, photographed by Kudaibergen Amirekul
fig. a Kudaibergen Amirekul, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-09-01 / obs. 160889380
Clematis orientalis, photographed by Konstantin Grebennikov
fig. b Konstantin Grebennikov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 132630410
Clematis orientalis, photographed by Kudaibergen Amirekul
fig. c Kudaibergen Amirekul, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 52133428
Clematis orientalis, photographed by Kudaibergen Amirekul
fig. d Kudaibergen Amirekul, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 48582676
Clematis orientalis, photographed by Craig Martin
fig. e Craig Martin, CC0 1.0 / obs. 23942901
Clematis orientalis, photographed by Galyna Mykytynets
fig. f Galyna Mykytynets, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 175733762
Clematis orientalis, photographed by Konstantin Grebennikov
fig. g Konstantin Grebennikov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 100098105
Clematis orientalis, photographed by Dmitry Kulakov
fig. h Dmitry Kulakov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 53566778

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
487377
Filed as
Clematis orientalis L.
Det. by
L. C. Anderson
Collected
L. C. Anderson 1958-08-14
Origin
US
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 25 botanical countries

Regions where Clematis orientalis is native: Afghanistan, Altay, Buryatiya, China North-Central, East Aegean Is., Inner Mongolia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Mongolia, North Caucasus, Oman, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Tuva, Uzbekistan, Xinjiang, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya, South European Russia, Ukraine AfghanistanAltayBuryatiyaChina North-CentralEast Aegean Is.Inner MongoliaIranIraqKazakhstanKirgizstanMongoliaNorth CaucasusOmanTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanTuvaUzbekistanXinjiangNepalPakistanWest HimalayaSouth European RussiaUkraine
Native distribution of Clematis orientalis, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Altay ALT
Buryatiya BRY
China North-Central CHN
East Aegean Is. EAI
Inner Mongolia CHI
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Mongolia MON
North Caucasus NCS
Oman OMA
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Tuva TVA
Uzbekistan UZB
Xinjiang CHX
Nepal NEP ASIA-TROPICAL
Pakistan PAK
West Himalaya WHM
South European Russia RUS EUROPE
Ukraine UKR

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 659 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -16.3 °C -9.2 °C 0.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 19.9 °C 26.9 °C 32.9 °C
Annual rainfall 175 mm 519 mm 1,212 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 18 mm 65 mm 165 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 659 research-grade observations of Clematis orientalis that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 30 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Clematis albida KIotzsch
  • Clematis aurea A.Nelson & J.F.Macbr.
  • Clematis baltistanica Qureshi & Chaudhri
  • Clematis dahurica DC.
  • Clematis flava DC.
  • Clematis glauca Claus
  • Clematis glauca var. angustifolia Ledeb.
  • Clematis globosa Royle
  • Clematis graveolens Hook.
  • Clematis hysudrica Munro ex Hook.f. & Thomson
  • Clematis longecaudata Ledeb.
  • Clematis orientalis var. albida (Klotzsch) Kuntze
  • Clematis orientalis var. baluchistanica Grey-Wilson
  • Clematis orientalis var. flava (Moench) Kuntze
  • Clematis orientalis var. globosa (Royle) Mukerjee
  • Clematis orientalis var. hindukushensis Grey-Wilson
  • Clematis orientalis var. hookeriana Kuntze
  • Clematis orientalis var. latifolia Hook.f. & Thomson
  • Clematis orientalis var. lindleyana Kuntze
  • Clematis orientalis var. longicaudata (Ledeb.) Kuntze
  • Clematis orientalis var. obtusifolia Hook.f. & Thomson
  • Clematis orientalis var. orientalis
  • Clematis orientalis var. robusta Grey-Wilson
  • Clematis orientalis var. robusta W.T.Wang

and 6 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.