Young mystery plant from Virginia in SC

We have a couple of these volunteers growing in part shade. They are slow-growing and woody- they seem to be evergreen, and if they have flowers, I haven’t noticed them. There are some blackberry leaves in the photo for scale… not a large plant- maybe a foot tall & a little wider than tall.

 

Hi Virginia,  I puzzled over this for awhile – and I think these are sprouts or young plants of the introduced Clematis terniflora = Clematis dioscoreifolia.  It is an aggressive perennial vine and can cover shrubs.  I normally weed it out – but since I’m not positive that is what you have, you may want to wait to see if it starts to vine.  Also, it was originally introduced as a garden ornamental, but, like multiflora rose and kudzu, it got out of hand and continues to spread.

I don’t see any blackberries in the image – everything seems to be the same plant.  They start with simple leaves, and these become compound later.

Sincerely,   Steve Hill  SCNPS

 

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