Clematis reticulata, or netleaf leather flower, is an airy, fragile, native vine in the Ranunculaceae or buttercup family.
It grows in zones 6a to 9b, and is native to Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas. Netleaf leather flower is natural to pineland, woodland, and sandhill habitats.
Its leaves are pinnately compound and have three to nine leaflets that are ovate to linear. The leaflets are reticulate … having a distinct network of veins.
The bell-shaped flowers, (technically ‘sepals’, due to their lack of petals), are a purplish-pink, and appear in spring and summer here in central Florida.
Once the flowers are gone, the seed heads make quite a showing as well. They are globular and fuzzy and are eaten by a variety of songbirds and other small mammals.
It grows naturally in pinelands, woodlands, and sandhills.