A vigorous, free-spirited native vine that transforms fences, trellises, arbors and shrub thickets into a cloud of fragrant white flowers from midsummer through fall — and then into something even more spectacular: shimmering, feathery silver seed plumes that earn it the common name "Old Man's Beard." One of the few vines that flowers well even in shade, Virgin's Bower is dioecious — male and female flowers on separate plants — and both are prolific bloomers covered in small white four-sepaled flowers for nearly a month. The female plants produce the dramatic silky seed heads in fall. An important ecological plant for native bees, wasps, flies and nesting songbirds. Often confused with invasive Sweet Autumn Clematis (Clematis terniflora) — distinguished by its jagged (toothed) leaf edges, while the invasive has smooth, rounded leaflet edges.