Species
+

Clematis montana Buch.-Ham. ex DC.

Himalayan Clematis, xiu qiu teng

Climate known 70 photographs Temperate garden plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Clematis montana, the mountain clematis, also Himalayan clematis or anemone clematis, is a flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. A vigorous deciduous climber, in late spring it is covered with a mass of small blooms for a period of about four weeks. The odorous flowers are white or pink, four-petalled, with prominent yellow anthers. It is native to mountain areas of Asia from Afghanistan to Taiwan.

Text from Wikipedia, “Clematis montana”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

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.

Text from Wikipedia, “Clematis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Ranunculaceae
Described by
Buch.-Ham. ex DC.
Native to
Afghanistan, China South-Central, Inner Mongolia +12
Wild records
453 in range· 220 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1197mm/yr
10 wet months · peak Jul 234 mm (CHELSA)
Light
19–34DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Clematis, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1197 mm a year, wettest July at 234 mm, driest December at 13 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -8.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Anemone curta Wall.; Clematis anemoniflora D.Don; Clematis insularialpina Hayata; Clematis kuntziana H.Lév. & Vaniot; Clematis montana Buch.-Ham. and 12 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a temperate garden plant by the genus Clematis, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (905 mm of 1197 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 17.4 °C against a yearly mean of 11.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1197 mm a year, wettest July at 234 mm, driest December at 13 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1197 mm a year at the habitat, 905 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 234 mm, driest December at 13 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 651 mm to 3060 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

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

Light Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 34 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor -8.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -8.7 °C, the absolute minimum -16.6 °C, about 80 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -3.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells -14.6 °C to 3.1 °C), warmest day 21.7 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 6 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul; mean night from -3 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1197 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 318 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -16.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost34.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-16.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 19–34RH 59–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 318 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C6 / -3–138 / -1–1411 / 2–1816 / 7–2219 / 11–2621 / 14–2822 / 15–3021 / 15–2919 / 13–2616 / 9–2111 / 3–178 / -1–14
Night °C-3 / -15–3-2 / -12–52 / -8–86 / -4–1210 / 2–1713 / 6–2014 / 8–2214 / 7–2212 / 6–188 / 0–143 / -7–9-2 / -13–5
Rain mm17 / 5–9026 / 7–15448 / 18–18873 / 26–224126 / 63–298196 / 93–414234 / 133–451201 / 117–458148 / 87–36786 / 44–19229 / 10–7913 / 4–54
DLI21 / 14–2825 / 16–3330 / 20–3934 / 25–4334 / 28–4231 / 25–3832 / 24–3630 / 25–3325 / 21–2923 / 16–2820 / 14–2719 / 13–25
RH %60 / 53–6660 / 52–6860 / 52–6760 / 52–6761 / 55–6864 / 58–7265 / 61–7565 / 61–7365 / 60–7263 / 58–6961 / 56–6659 / 54–65

Each figure is the median across the 318 grid cells holding the 438 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1133:5766 (33.325, 108.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -16.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 318 distinct grid cells holding the 438 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1133:5766 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 33.50_108.125, lapse-corrected -471 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1004 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAfghanistan, China South-Central, Inner Mongolia, China North-Central, Qinghai, China Southeast, Tibet, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Myanmar· introduced: Great Britain, New Zealand North, New Zealand South
Kew's description“climber” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker30.067, 102.758 · in the densest population, 232 records (51% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 453 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 220 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 338 km away. 433 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 15 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 453 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Clematis montanaClematis montanaClematis montanaClematis montanaClematis montanaClematis montanaClematis montanaClematis montana

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Clematis montana, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Clemontanoside-C, a saponin from Clematis montana
Rakesh Thapliyal, R. P. Bahuguna (1993) · Phytochemistry
Chemical Constituents of Clematis montana
Song Cheng-zhi (2008) · Chinese Journal of Natural Medicines
Clemontanoside-A, a bisglycoside from Clematis montana
R. P. Bahuguna, J. S. Jangwan, Toyo Kaiya, Jinsaku Sakakibara (1989) · Phytochemistry
Chemical Constituents of Clematis montana
Song Cheng (2008) · Chinese Journal of Natural Medicines
An oleanolic acid based bisglycoside from Clematis montana roots
Rakesh Thapliyal, R. P. Bahuguna (1993) · Phytochemistry
Clemontanoside-E, a New Saponin from Clematis montana
Rakesh Thapliyal, R. P. Bahuguna (1994) · Pharmaceutical Biology
Phyto-mediated synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles using Clematis montana extract and evaluation of its antibacterial activity
Madhumita Ghosh Dastidar, V. Uma Maheshwari Nallal, E. Thulasiram, S. Muthupandi (2023) · Applied Nanoscience
PRELIMINARY PHYTOCHEMICAL, PHYSICOCHEMICAL, ANTIOXIDANT AND ANTIMICROBIAL STUDIES OF CLEMATIS MONTANA LEAVES
Hemlata Bhatt, Sarla Saklani, Kumud Upadhayay (2016) · International Journal of Current Pharmaceutical Research

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Clematis 5 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 74 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.