Clematis vitalba – November 18th 2024 – Traveller’s Joy, aka Old Man’s Beard

This week’s plant likes limey soils. It is common in the southern half of England where I knew it well whilst growing up. It’s a rampant climber, and in my village it grew in almost every hedgerow. When November came, it had pride of place on what schools then called ‘nature tables’. But in the northern half of England and throughout Scotland it is rather rare, finding a few places to grow including crumbling mortar on old bridges and railway banks where limestone has been applied in past times.

In full flower, showing four petaloid sepals and long stiles. Early October, Dumfries and Galloway. Image: John Grace.

Its English name ‘Traveller’s Joy’, was given by John Gerard in his Herbal of 1597. The name suggests it grew along well-trod tracks and roadsides in the 16^th Century, bringing joy to weary travellers. But as kids, we always called it ‘Old Man’s Beard’, and that name is still widespread. The reason for the name is obvious: at this time of year its clusters of seed heads have feathery styles, beard-like. The flowers are pretty enough in the summer, but full glory is obtained in late Autumn when the beards appear.

Early fruiting stage, mid-November 2024 at Calton Hill in Edinburgh. The styles have elongated but are not yet showing their feathery nature. The image is pink-tinged because the Autumnal sun is low in the sky. Image: John Grace.

Old Man’s Beard is a woody member of the buttercup Family (Ranunculaceae). Its flowers are white and scented to attract a range of pollinating insects. It grows fast and very tall (faster than ivy, and maximum height is said to be 8 metres). Its mode of climbing relies on the sensitivity of its petioles, which hook on to any available support. It’s a perennial, losing leaves in winter. The species is considered to be native in England and Wales but introduced into Scotland and Ireland. Originally a species of primaeval broadleaved forest, it also colonises hedgerows and man-made structures wherever there is fertile and lime-rich soil. Plants are on sale at the Royal Horticultural Society’s web site and its deployment as a garden ornamental probably assists its spread.

The seed heads at a later stage. The styles have developed their feathery appearance. Image early November at a roadside in Brno, Czechia. Image: John Grace.

Ecologists from the humid tropics, on their first visit to European forests, often ask: where are the lianas? For them, the forest structure includes climbers (lianas) that rely on trees for support. Many tropical lianas have stems thicker than your arms, and they festoon the entire canopy, often emerging as a great canopy alongside the tallest trees. Their water-conducting cells are relatively large to transport water from soil to leaves at a rapid rate. In temperate forests we have very few species that can be considered as lianas. One of them is Clematis vitalba; nowhere near as massive as tropical lianas, but its stem anatomy has the same characteristics. There are only a few other European species that might be considered as lianas: grapevine, honeysuckle and hops are the ones that spring to mind.  

Distribution of C. vitalba in Britain and Ireland. Left: records before 1970; right: records after 1970. The slight increase may be due to a more interest in botnical recording in recent decades. Data from BSBI/Maps.

The internal structures of Clematis stems have often been examined microscopically. Clematis vitalba does indeed have a high portion of its stem as large-diameter vessels, thus explaining its extraordinary water-conducting capacity and high growth rate. Like all lianas, it doesn’t need so much woody tissue for mechanical support as it leans and twists on other plants for support.

The species has been introduced to several parts of the world and in some cases it has become a pest, competing successfully with native plants and/or reducing the growth rate of valuable timber trees. Its introduction to North America occurred in the early 1900s and it was recorded in South Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s.

Distribution of C. vitalba in the world. From GBIF.

Researchers in New Zealand have been looking at its mode of spread. Until recently people thought that dispersal was only by seed production. Old Man’s Beard does produce abundant viable seeds but it can also spread vegetatively. Researchers in New Zealand’s Palmerston North excavated the ground around plots where Clematis was growing and uncovered a branching network of creeping stems, both below and above the ground (Jarvis-Lowry et al. 2024). They also found that stem fragments could sprout to form new plants.

The vigour of Old Man’s Beard in New Zealand may be due to the lack of natural enemies. In Britain, nine insect species are known to feed exclusively on this plant; five of them are geometrid moths whose larvae are said to have a significant impact. One of them is even named after C. vitalba (the small waved umber, Horisme vitalbata).

In the world as a whole, there are around 380 species of Clematis; many have been introduced into British gardens. Only a few have escaped from gardens. Stace (2019) lists six but none of them are common.

One of the introduced species showing stages of flower development: Clematis tangutica. It is often grown in gardens and sometime seen in the wild. There are several records from Glasgow, Edinburgh and around Elgin. Note the essential similarity to C. vitalba. Image: Chris Jeffree.

Writing in 1597, Gerard found no medicinal use for the plant. Today it is sometimes used as a homeopathic remedy in the Bach Flower Remedies. A mixture of brandy and water (the ‘mother tincture’) is used to dilute flower extracts. The leaves are mildly toxic but homeopathic remedies are so dilute that this becomes irrelevant. There is no clinical evidence of the efficacy of such remedies.

Despite the toxicity, the well-cooked young shoots are used in a type of Italian omelette called ‘Fritatta di vitalbini’. If you understand Italian you can see how it is done here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOcbLDRZ4_I

In former times, stems of the plant were used for string. The stems can be used for smoking, like cigarettes. Hence there are a number of alternative names including whiffy cane, Baccy plant, Smokewood, Woodbine, Father Christmas, Shepherd’s Delight,Virgin’s Bower.

Greg Kenicer’s book, Plant Magic, tells of a magical-myth. If enough Ukrainians wear Clematis in their belts, the souls of Cossack warriors will return from the dead and spring back to life. For the full story you need to buy the book.

References consulted

Jarvis-Lowry et al. (2024) Potential importance of vegetative spread and fragment regeneration for invasiveness of Clematis vitalba. Weed Research 64, 282-289.

Kenicer G (2020) Plant Magic. Published by the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh.

Ogle CC et al. (2000) Impact of an exotic vine Clematis vitalba (F. Ranunculaceae) and of control measures on plant biodiversity in indigenous forest, Taihape, New Zealand. Austral Ecology, 25(5), 539–551. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1442993.2000.01076.x

Sieber M and Kucera LJ (1980) On the stem anatomy of Clematis vitalba. IAWA Bulletin n.s., Vol. I (1-2). Institut fur Mikrotechnologische Holzforschung der ETH, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.

Stace CA (2019) New Flora of the British Isles. C&M Floristics.

©John Grace