Garden Wildplants
Garden Wildplants
Traveller’s-joy, with its beautifully scented nectar, is quite likely to turn up in your hedge – and may need some restraint. It has small green-white flowers with fluffy sepals and is a valuable nectar plant for bees and hoverflies. Moths are attracted to it at night which in turn will attract bats to the garden. The attractive fluffy seed heads that have earned it the alternative name, old man’s beard, remain on the plant throughout winter and provide nesting material the following spring. It can grow to smother other plants, and is recognised as an invasive species where established outside Europe. Traveller’s joy is native to Britain and Ireland, but the spectacular garden Clematis varieties or cultivars are derived from other, largely Asiatic species.
History and uses
First described botanically by William Turner in 1548.1. The plant is common in southern and central Britain and Ireland and seems to be spreading north. It has several local names including old man’s beard, bush beards, grandfather’s whiskers and withywine. Many names refer to the whiskery appearance of the feathery seed heads in autumn. Older stems have been used as rope and bindings since the Neolithic period. Dried stems have air channels, and they were used by amateur smokers as “boy’s bacca”, an acrid and bitter tobacco substitute.2.
Associated species
It is a valuable nectar plant for bees and hoverflies, and moths are attracted to it at night which in turn will attract bats to the garden. It is a food plant for caterpillars of a large number of micro and larger moths including the white ermine moth Spilosoma lucricepeda and the attractive green v-pug moth Chloroclystis v-ata.3.
References
1. Pearman, D. The Discovery of the Native Flora of Britain and Ireland. 2017. BSBI, Bristol. p160
2. Vickery, R. 2019. Vickery’s Folk Flora, An A to Z of the Folklore and Uses of British and Irish Plants. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. London. p672
3. Biological Records Centre database
Page drafted by Caroline Ware, compiled by Steve Head
.jpg "Traveller's joy Clematis vitalba Photo: By Isidre blanc - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37959694")
Travellers’ joy Clematis vitalba
Family: Ranunculaceae – Buttercup family
Climbs to: 15m
Flowering: July to September
Seeds: Autumn and winter
.jpg "Traveller's joy Clematis vitalba seeds Photo: By Isidre blanc - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37847653")
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The feathery seeds (technically achenes) are widely distributed by wind.
Travellers’ joy Clematis vitalba
Climbs to: 15m
Flowering: July to September
Seeds: Autumn and winter
The feathery seeds (technically achenes) are widely distributed by wind.
Traveller’s-joy, with its beautifully scented nectar, is quite likely to turn up in your hedge – and may need some restraint. It has small green-white flowers with fluffy sepals and is a valuable nectar plant for bees and hoverflies. Moths are attracted to it at night which in turn will attract bats to the garden. The attractive fluffy seed heads that have earned it the alternative name, old man’s beard, remain on the plant throughout winter and provide nesting material the following spring. It can grow to smother other plants, and is recognised as an invasive species where established outside Europe. Traveller’s joy is native to Britain and Ireland, but the spectacular garden Clematis varieties or cultivars are derived from other, largely Asiatic species.
History and uses
First described botanically by William Turner in 1548.1. The plant is common in southern and central Britain and Ireland and seems to be spreading north. It has several local names including old man’s beard, bush beards, grandfather’s whiskers and withywine. Many names refer to the whiskery appearance of the feathery seed heads in autumn. Older stems have been used as rope and bindings since the Neolithic period. Dried stems have air channels, and they were used by amateur smokers as “boy’s bacca”, an acrid and bitter tobacco substitute.2.
Associated species
It is a valuable nectar plant for bees and hoverflies, and moths are attracted to it at night which in turn will attract bats to the garden. It is a food plant for caterpillars of a large number of micro and larger moths including the white ermine moth Spilosoma lucricepeda and the attractive green v-pug moth Chloroclystis v-ata.3.
References
1. Pearman, D. The Discovery of the Native Flora of Britain and Ireland. 2017. BSBI, Bristol. p160
2. Vickery, R. 2019. Vickery’s Folk Flora, An A to Z of the Folklore and Uses of British and Irish Plants. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. London. p672
Page drafted by Caroline Ware, compiled by Steve Head