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 An Illustrated Guide to
Common Weeds
of New Zealand
Clematis
vitalba
old
man's beard
Family
RANUNCULACEAE
Reproduced from
Common Weeds of New Zealand
by Ian Popay, Paul Champion & Trevor James
ISBN 0 473 09760 5
by kind permission of the
New Zealand
Plant Protection Society
Publication or other use of images or
descriptive text on these pages is unauthorised unless
written permission is obtained from the authors and
publisher.
Appropriate acknowledgement of the publication Common
Weeds of New Zealand must always be given.
Tall,
clambering, deciduous, woody perennial climber,
growing 20 m or more tall on trees. Attractive,
creamy-white flowers in summer, followed by seeds with
long, fluffy hairs. The leaves, failing in autumn and
regrowing in spring, are in opposite pairs, and each
is divided into usually five widely-spaced leaflets.
- Flowers
Creamy-white, 2-3 cm in diameter, fragrant.
The four or five, sharply bent back, petal-like sepals
are softly-hairy. The numerous, cream-coloured stamens
are conspicuous. The flowers are in loosely branched,
flat- or convex-topped inflorescences in the leaf
axils. Flowers Dec-May.
- Fruit
Grey, hairy, white-plumed seeds (achenes)
2-2.5 mm long, in dense fluffy clusters persisting
through winter, giving rise to the common name. Seeds
spread by wind.
- Leaves
The leaves, falling in autumn, are thin,
papery, softly-hairy, bluntly-toothed, growing in
opposite pairs. Each leaf is divided into five heart-
to lance-shaped leaflets.
- Stems
Very long, woody, six-angled,
strongly-ribbed, with light-coloured bark that easily
rubs off. Stems root wherever they touch ground to
make new plants. New growth is green-mauve.
- Roots
Fibrous.
Habitat
Second-growth
forest, forest margins, hedges and trees.
Distribution
Widespread
and common throughout NI, and in SI except for
Westland and Fiordland. Also found on Stewart and
Chatham Islands. Originally from Europe and
south-western Asia.
Comments
Has become a
very serious problem in some areas in bush remnants
and reserves. Has the ability to smother and
eventually bring down large trees. The species has
spread widely since the 1940s. Control is difficult
and labour-intensive. Biological control is being
attempted, but its effectiveness cannot yet be
evaluated. Listed on the National
Pest Plant Accord (see Introduction for
details). The occasional death of cattle from eating
this plant has been recorded in England.
Related
species
Clematis
flammula is another adventive deciduous
clematis, but with thicker, bipinnate leaves and white
flowers, in hedgerows and scrub in northern NI, Nelson
and Canterbury. The native clematis species are all
evergreen with three leaflets (except for the leafless
Clematis afoliata).
Derivation
of botanical name
Clematis
Gr. name for a climbing plant; vitalba
(Lat.) = white vine.
Web-notes:
Weed Links
On this site
Reproduced from Common Weeds
of New Zealand:
External Links
 Weedbusters
New Zealand
- Weedbusters is a weeds awareness and education programme that aims to
protect New Zealand's environment from the increasing weed problem.
- AgPest
- A free tool to assist farmers and agricultural professionals in decision-making regarding weed and pest identification, biology, impact and management.
 New Zealand Weeds Key
- An interactive identification key to the weeds of New Zealand. Developed at Landcare Research.
New
Zealand Plant Conservation Network naturalised plants
- Search for information on more than 2500 naturalised and weedy plants.
 New
Zealand Plant Protection Society
- Their main objective: "To pool and exchange information on the biology
of weeds, invertebrate and vertebrate pests, pathogens and beneficial organisms
and methods for modifying their effects."
-
 Massey
University Weeds Database- A site providing information about New Zealand weeds and weed control.
It has a series of pages showing pictures of New Zealand weeds, notes on
identification and control. It also provides information on a university
paper entitled Controlling Weeds.
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