Clematis morefieldii

Morefield's Leather Flower is a native herbaceous vine in the Buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). It is restricted to a small area in Alabama and Tennessee near Huntsville and NW Georgia, with the total population estimated at less than 50 occurrences. Morefield's Leather Flower grows in open woodlands among limestone boulders, on limestone bluffs, and in open red cedar-hardwood forests. It typically occurs on south and southwest facing slopes between 800 to 1700 feet in elevation. It is a perennial with stems up to 15 feet in length. The stems are slightly woody towards the base and sprawl or climb by tendrils over other vegetation. The stems are pubescent with cobwebby like hairs. Leaves are petiolate, opposite, and pinnately compound with 4-10 leaflets and a terminal tendril. The leaflets are ovate in outline, lobed or un-lobed, thin in texture, and silky pubescent on the lower surface. Flowers are produced from the axils of the leaves in 1-5 flowered inflorescences during the summer months. The pedicel/peduncle has 2 small bracts near its base. Petals are absent and the sepals form an urn-shape flower. The sepals are thick in texture, silky pubescent, not crispate, and pink fading to white or green in color. The tips of the sepals are reflexed. The fruit is a silky pubescent achene with a long beak. This species was first collected in 1982 by a 21-year-old botany student named James Morefield, and Dr. Robert Kral of Vanderbilt University described it as a new species in 1987. Morefield's Leather Flower is listed as an S2 species in Alabama (typically 6 to 20 occurrences, few remaining individuals, acres, or miles of stream, or factors demonstrably making it very vulnerable in the state), and globally as a G2 species (imperiled globally because of rarity (6 - 20 occurrences, or few remaining acres, or miles of stream) or very vulnerable to extinction throughout

• When this species was first published by Kral in 1992, he cited type specimens from multiple gatherings which unfortunately invalidated the new taxon name. When the mistake was discovered several years later, a new name could have been published or the original name could be validated.  In order maintain conservation efforts, Keener (2017) elected to use the same epithet ("morefieldii") proposed by Kral, validating the taxon.  Because of this, the publication date is 2017. 
• Listed as Federally Endangered as of 20 May 1992.