One of the late blooming clematis. Perhaps C. terniflora, virginiana or vitalba. All look very similar and bloom at the same time. Need to see a clearer photo of leaves and any seed heads to confirm but I am not leaning toward the native species (virginiana) based on what I see.

very invasive in many places... and that is why you found it in a WASTE area ...

probably fragrant also... especially when a 15 foot long plant has ten billion flowers on it.. and then of course.. 10 billion seed...

ken

you know its bad.. when even the common name brings up all the horror stories ... lol

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=autumn+sweet+clematis+invasive&t=ffab&ia=web

An awful lot of hyperbole in the previous post.........just saying :-) Feel free to take with a large grain of salt!

Yes, some of the usual excessive preaching about "invasive" stuff. Heck, near half the wild field/meadow plant species are "foreign" now here in the east US, but the world's not ending. Some not-so-good aspects, but in some ways, adds to diversity.

Well, after seeing 5,367,093,978 japanese knotweed plants within a 10 mile radius of me (hyperbole for sure, but that’s what it feels like, I swear), being aware of invasive plants can be a good thing. Clematis virginiana would definitely not be invasive. I’ve ignored two seedlings of C virginiana in the ground in crappy unfriendly conditions (too dry) and they are still six inches tall. Perhaps it is my gift to make it impossible even for natives to grow! Next year they are on the ”tender-loving care” list.

It’s not C vitalba.

Eliminating 2 of the 3 possibilities leaves us with Clematis terniflora, aka Sweet Autumn clematis. And that IS considered an invasive species in parts of the country. But as with virtually all invasive species. location plays a huge role. This vine's invasive characteristics seem to be concentrated east of the Mississippi. But it is an aggressive, rampant grower even where not invasive.

Thank you, everyone! I didn't notice any fragrance, but the next time I'm there I'll give it a sniff.

Not entirely GG, I live west of the Mississippi, and it's all over everywhere. It's evil, but maybe not quite as evil as Japanese Honeysuckle.

While it may be widely naturalized in other area, it is not listed as an invasive species except for in a handful of very eastern states. And there is a big difference between the two situations!.

An awful lot of hyperbole in the previous post.........just saying :-)

==>> my use of hyper-bowl.. is to make the reader remember what i said .. and hopefully take action..

otherwise.. just saying its invasive.. leads many people to say.. not in my yard.. because i will take care not to allow it to rampage around ... sure .. except the birds arent working with you on that ...

anyway.. this plant will kill us all while we are sleeping if you dont go kill the one that is subject of this post ..

ken

I've destroyed the seeds that I collected, so you can rest easily, my friend!

Thank you for destroying the seeds! SAC is rampant in northern Virginia. I've been seeing vacant lots covered in it (which looks amazing until you realize that hey, that plant's an invasive). We saw some blooming at Sky Meadows State Park a couple of weeks ago. Bleah :(