Dioecious, woody climber or trailer, ascending into forest canopies to 15 m high or more. Leaves opposite; juvenile leaves simple, usually purplish with whitish streaks along the main veins; adult leaves ternate, uncommonly biternate or simple; petioles often twining or twisting around other stems etc.; leaflets ovate to narrow lanceolate, mostly 3–8 cm long, 1–5 cm wide, glabrous or young leaflets hairy beneath, usually dull; margins variably serrate, rarely entire. Flowers in short panicles, less commonly solitary and long-pedunculate; sepals white or cream, oblong, lanceolate or oblanceolate, 15–35 mm long, glabrous to densely pubescent; male flowers with anthers 2–3.5 mm long, each with a subulate terminal appendage 1–2 mm long; female flowers sometimes with staminodes. Achenes flattened, obliquely ovate to obovate 4–6 mm long, variably pubescent or glabrous; awn plumose, 2–4.5 cm long. Flowers mainly Sep.–Nov.
LoM, Wim, GleP, VVP, VRiv, GipP, OtP, WaP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, NIS, EGL, EGU, WPro, HSF, HNF, OtR, Strz, MonT, HFE, VAlp. Common in moist to wet forests and gully vegetation throughout the cooler parts of the State.
Rather variable in leaf size and shape, and in pubescence of floral and vegetative parts. Plants from mountains in East Gippsland (e.g. Mt Elizabeth, Mt Kaye) are notable for their extremely pubescent young growth and perianth parts.
Clematis blanda (syn. C. aristata var. blanda) was originally described as differing from typical C. aristata principally in having flowers solitary in the axils. More recent accounts have emphasized the often biternate leaves with relatively small, entire leaflets (approaching those of C. microphylla). Individual plants with both solitary and paniculate flowers are not uncommon in Victoria. The form of the species with smaller entire leaflets appears to be confined to Tasmania and is of uncertain taxonomic status. Plants originally described as C. aristata var. dennisae (from near Healesville) appear to be merely a rare pink-flowered form of the species.
