Scarlet leatherflower
Feast your eyes on the rich red of a scarlet leatherflower, Clematis texensis, at the Doeskin Ranch in Burnet County on April 8. This species is endemic to the southeastern portion of the Edwards Plateau in central Texas; in other words, it’s native nowhere else in the world. On other occasions I’ve found this species in my northwestern part of Austin and even along Onion Creek in southeast Austin, which must be the extreme eastern edge of the plant’s range.
How different in color and form the flowers of this Clematis species are from those of the much more common C. drummondii. Looking at the flowers and leaves of the two species, you’d never guess that botanists put them in the same genus.
© 2016 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
how very pretty !!!
gwenniesworld
April 29, 2016 at 5:39 AM
It is, and we have it right here in Austin.
Steve Schwartzman
April 29, 2016 at 7:09 AM
We have them too here in Belgium, the Clematis texensis is quite winterhardy.
gwenniesworld
April 29, 2016 at 9:57 AM
Now that’s something I didn’t expect: our endemic Clematis texensis in Belgium. You have colder and much longer winters than we do, so the plant really is hardy.
Steve Schwartzman
April 29, 2016 at 11:17 AM
yep, it can take -20 C° ! and that is COLD! !
gwenniesworld
April 29, 2016 at 11:45 AM
I wonder if that implies that Clematis texensis evolved here when the temperature was colder (perhaps during one of earth’s ice ages, for example). After the climate warmed to what it has been in recent millennia, that ability to withstand cold would have persisted but not been needed.
Steve Schwartzman
April 29, 2016 at 12:01 PM
we have loads of plants here from all over the world, and the strong ones survive I guess….I am not a botanist so I don’t know why they survive over here. I think that what we know about plants these days is only the tip of the iceberg !
gwenniesworld
April 29, 2016 at 12:57 PM
I suspect that’s true about most everything. In the same way that we look back a few hundred years and see that people then knew very little about electricity and genetics and brain functions, for example, it seems likely that people a few hundred years from now will look back at us and see how little we understood about so many things.
Steve Schwartzman
April 29, 2016 at 1:06 PM
That is true. So I often wonder about the people laying in the freezer in the hope that some day they can be revived…. if that ever happens they’ll die of shock when they’ll see how everything has changed ! 😀
gwenniesworld
April 29, 2016 at 1:10 PM
It would also most likely be a sad awakening because all the people the revived person cared about would long since have died (unless they, too, had been frozen and revived at the same time).
Steve Schwartzman
April 29, 2016 at 1:32 PM
Yes, that and all, I just hope for them that time never comes 😀
gwenniesworld
April 29, 2016 at 4:03 PM
Based on HeyJude’s comment below, I found that there’s a ‘Princess Diana’ cultivar of Clematis texensis:
https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/118677/i-Clematis-i-Princess-Diana-%28T%29/Details
Do you know whether what you have in Belgium is a cultivar, as opposed to the native Texas original?
Steve Schwartzman
April 30, 2016 at 7:38 AM
Oh but we have several cultivars of the clematis texensis but not the original species I think
gwenniesworld
May 3, 2016 at 12:27 PM
I think you’re right about the original not being found there. I didn’t even know about the cultivars till you mentioned them.
Steve Schwartzman
May 3, 2016 at 8:40 PM
I’ve always thought this was one of our most striking flowers. The combination of the creamy-white interior and that just-barely-purplish red is elegant. Some day, I may actually see one. As a consolation prize, I’ll remember my discovery of the purple Clematis pitcheri, which has the same interesting shape. I went back to the place where I found it last month — the banks of the Brazos River, in East Columbia — but I may have been early, since it’s said to begin blooming in May.
I noticed this morning that the USDA map says it’s not present in Brazoria, while the BONAP site shows it. Most of the time the two sites agree, but there are differences often enough that I’m learning to check both.
shoreacres
April 29, 2016 at 7:08 AM
Even when both sites agree, there’s no guarantee of accuracy. A species can have its range expand or contract. A county that should be marked on the map may remain unmarked just because no botanist ever happened upon existing specimens there, especially on private land—which is the case for most land in Texas.
Even though the purple leatherflower has a larger range than the red, and even though that range includes Austin, for some reason I almost never run into the purple leatherflowers. In contrast, there are a few locations where I know I’m likely to find some of the red. The Doeskin Ranch is probably the most reliable of them. Good luck in establishing a similar place near you for the purple.
Steve Schwartzman
April 29, 2016 at 7:32 AM
Dramatic, bold colour contrasts; it’s a hardy looking bloom!
Nature on the Edge
April 29, 2016 at 9:02 AM
Bold: I like your description. As for hardy, people named this a leatherflower because its sepals are thick and felt to them like leather. I find the feel more like rubber. Either way, the hardiness is there.
Steve Schwartzman
April 29, 2016 at 9:08 AM
I thought it was a tulip the wrong way round at first. What a beauty! I really like clematis – there are so many different varieties and I recently came across a scented one which flowers in January. Having read that this one is hardy in Belgium I will keep my eye out for one here.
Heyjude
April 29, 2016 at 3:45 PM
I have no idea how Clematis texensis got to Belgium, but then people here grow plenty of plants from other parts of the world, so I really shouldn’t be surprised. You can probably order seeds online for the scarlet leatherflower.
Steve Schwartzman
April 29, 2016 at 7:41 PM
I have tracked down one called ‘Princess Diana’ which is pinker from a local nursery. Also lovely.
Heyjude
April 30, 2016 at 4:12 AM
That cultivar looks so different from the original:
https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/118677/i-Clematis-i-Princess-Diana-%28T%29/Details
The flowers, in addition to being a different color, open so much farther. The name ‘Princess Diana’ should keep anyone from mistaking the cultivar for the Texas endemic.
Steve Schwartzman
April 30, 2016 at 7:34 AM
Yes, the name is a bit of a turn-off 😦
Heyjude
April 30, 2016 at 8:38 AM
I see from a bit of searching that Prince Charles visited Texas in 1986 but I didn’t turn up any evidence that Princess Diana ever came here.
Steve Schwartzman
April 30, 2016 at 9:09 AM
It is beautiful Steve … the colour is divine
Julie@frogpondfarm
April 30, 2016 at 9:05 PM
It sure is a luscious red. Almost makes you wish you could eat it.
Steve Schwartzman
April 30, 2016 at 9:12 PM
I’m with you 😃
Julie@frogpondfarm
April 30, 2016 at 10:14 PM
Our eyes, if not our mouths, can still savor it.
Steve Schwartzman
April 30, 2016 at 10:20 PM
looks like it’s about to kiss
sedge808
May 1, 2016 at 12:18 AM
Now that’s a novel vision.
Steve Schwartzman
May 1, 2016 at 6:13 AM
sedge808 beat me to it. It does look like it’s puckered for a bussing.
Steve Gingold
May 2, 2016 at 6:40 PM
That makes two of you, and all the years I’ve seen this kind of flower I’ve never imagined it that way.
Steve Schwartzman
May 2, 2016 at 6:48 PM
It’s all in the angle or, as Jay Maisel might say…gesture.
Steve Gingold
May 2, 2016 at 6:51 PM
I think you mentioned Jay Maisel once before, and I see that I’ve been to his website. I found a brief video in which he explains his concept of gesture.
Steve Schwartzman
May 2, 2016 at 7:01 PM
Jay is always a revelation no matter what your interest in photography. It all fits.
Steve Gingold
May 2, 2016 at 7:07 PM