This clematis, introduced by Wilson from the Min valley of western Szechwan, was named C. glauca var. akebioides in Plantae Wilsonianae and is briefly mentioned on page 655 of the main work, under C. orientalis, to which it is allied. It should rank as a species, of which the distinguishing characters are: leaves pinnate, with five to seven leaflets, which are glaucous, rather thick, obtuse, bluntly and irregularly toothed, rarely somewhat lobed. Inflorescence without a common peduncle or this very short, the clusters of long-stalked flowers thus apparently springing direct from the leaf-axils. Sepals ovate, to about 1 in. long, erect or slightly spreading, fairly thick, glabrous except at the margins, yellow often stained with red or purple on the back. Native of western China.
C. akebioides is still in cultivation on the Rock Garden at Kew, but is now rare. It is related to:
C. intricata Bunge C. orientalis var. glauca Maxim.; C. glauca auct., not Willd. – Similar to the later-named C. akebioides, with which it has been confused, differing in its foliage, which resembles that of the true C. orientalis (see this supplement). The sepals spread when the flower is fully open, but are not reflexed. Native of northern China and southern Mongolia. It has been in cultivation as “C. glauca” but is now rare. It is not the C. glauca of Willdenow, which is simply a variety of the true C. orientalis from eastern Siberia (C. orientalis var. daurica). Plants from Kansu have the sepals heavily flushed with purple on the outside (Grey-Wilson, The Plantsman, Vol. 7(4), pp. 197-8 (1986)).