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Clematis heracleifolia; photograph (c) Jiao Sun (孙娇), some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Jiao Sun (孙娇), some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2019-09-10

Clematis heracleifolia DC.

Hyacinth-flower clematis; Tube clematis

Ranunculaceae · China South-Central, Inner Mongolia +4 · listed by its genus as a temperate garden plant

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Clematis heracleifolia, photograph (c) Jane Charlen, some rights reserved (CC BY)Clematis heracleifolia, photograph (c) Jane Charlen, some rights reserved (CC BY)Clematis heracleifolia, photograph (c) Jane Charlen, some rights reserved (CC BY)Clematis heracleifolia, photograph (c) Jane Charlen, some rights reserved (CC BY)Clematis heracleifolia, photograph (c) Jane Charlen, some rights reserved (CC BY)Clematis heracleifolia, photograph (c) Jane Charlen, some rights reserved (CC BY) 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-20.2°C
Record low -30.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,487mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
15–37DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Clematis heracleifolia, the tube clematis (大叶铁线莲 da ye tie xian lian), is a species of flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, native to central and northern China. Unlike most other members of the genus Clematis, it has a scrambling rather than a climbing habit.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Clematis heracleifolia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Clematis

Clematis is a genus of about 380 species within the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. Their garden hybrids and cultivars have been popular among gardeners, beginning with Clematis 'Jackmanii', a garden staple since 1862. More cultivars are being produced constantly, mainly of Chinese and Japanese origin.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Clematis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant, listed under the genus Clematis in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial or subshrub”, “temperate”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,029 mm of 1,467 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.7 °C against a yearly mean of 9.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Rain

1,467 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,029 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 355 mm, driest month December at 26 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 678 mm to 1,939 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,487 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,467 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 37 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -20.2 °C, the absolute minimum -30.8 °C, 6,574 frost nights in 44 years, 149.4 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -11.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -14.9 °C to -6.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.8 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -20.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +70 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Clematis in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial or subshrub”, “temperate”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Clematis heracleifolia through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -11.4 °C; 1,467 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-40°-20°0°20°40°frost29.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-30.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 15–37RH 54–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 466 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C-1 / -3–22 / -1–47 / 5–1015 / 12–1720 / 17–2323 / 21–2726 / 23–2826 / 24–2822 / 19–2416 / 14–188 / 6–112 / -1–5
Night °C-11 / -15–-6-8 / -12–-4-3 / -6–04 / 2–710 / 8–1215 / 13–1719 / 17–2119 / 17–2113 / 11–166 / 4–10-1 / -3–3-7 / -10–-3
Rain mm28 / 3–5133 / 5–5156 / 13–8078 / 29–101109 / 51–143156 / 93–198355 / 194–462326 / 157–421192 / 70–28556 / 28–10252 / 11–8226 / 3–38
DLI18 / 16–1923 / 22–2429 / 28–3135 / 34–3637 / 36–3935 / 34–3828 / 26–3328 / 27–3126 / 25–2923 / 22–2417 / 16–1815 / 14–17
RH %56 / 48–5955 / 47–5755 / 47–5754 / 46–5557 / 48–5961 / 54–6367 / 62–7066 / 61–6962 / 56–6458 / 52–5957 / 49–5956 / 48–59
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 466 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (759 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1054:6159 (37.275, 127.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -30.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -20.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 466 distinct grid cells holding 759 of the 760 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1054:6159 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 37.50_128.125, lapse-corrected +70 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 518 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, China North-Central, China Southeast, Korea · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker37.542, 128.416 · in the densest population, 547 records (53% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial or subshrub” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1041 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 759 of them in the land cells it reads, of 760 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 260 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 15 km away. 36 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 281 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1041 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Clematis heracleifolia, photograph 1did not loadClematis heracleifolia, photograph 2did not loadClematis heracleifolia, photograph 3did not loadClematis heracleifolia, photograph 4did not loadClematis heracleifolia, photograph 5did not loadClematis heracleifolia, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Jane Charlen, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Acer triflorum Acer triflorum Three-flower maple Photo: CC BY-SA, AbrahamiActaea heracleifolia Actaea heracleifolia Komarov’s bugbane Photo: CC BY-SA, André Karwath aka AkaBetula chinensis Betula chinensis China birch Photo: CC0, author not statedCirsium setidens Cirsium setidens Gondre (Korean thistle) Photo: CC BY, 방신애Pinus koraiensis Pinus koraiensis Korean pine Photo: CC BY, Violetta Dzizyurova Deutzia glabrata Glabrous deutzia

Other Clematis 112 in the reference

Clematis addisonii Clematis addisonii Addison Brown's clematis Photo: CC0, author not statedClematis aethusifolia Clematis aethusifolia Parsley-leaf clematis Photo: CC BY, zhangshenClematis afoliata Clematis afoliata Rush-stem clematis Photo: CC BY, Rock McLaren Clematis akebioides Ranunculaceae Clematis akoensis Clematis akoensis Ranunculaceae Photo: CC0, 葉子Clematis albicoma Clematis albicoma White-haired leather-flower Photo: CC BY, Alaina KrakowiakClematis alpina Clematis alpina Alpine Clematis Photo: CC0, author not statedClematis apiifolia Clematis apiifolia Three-leaf clematis Photo: CC BY, Timur KalininskyClematis aristata Clematis aristata Goat's-beard Photo: CC BY, Ian RainbowClematis armandii Clematis armandii Evergreen Clematis Photo: CC0, author not stated Clematis aureolata Ranunculaceae Clematis brachiata Clematis brachiata Traveler's-joy Photo: CC0, author not stated all 113 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Clematis daveyana; Clematis heracleifolia f. albiflora; Clematis heracleifolia subsp. lavallei; Clematis heracleifolia subsp. normalis; Clematis heracleifolia subsp. urticifolia and 17 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Clematis speciosa; Clematis urticifolia: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

Under another author Clematis tubulosa Hook.f. is an older name of this species, not Clematis tubulosa, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Ranunculaceae
Described by
DC.
Native to
China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria +3
Wild records
1041 in range · 260 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 24 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (24 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 37.50_128.125, lapse-corrected +70 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 62 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…