Clematis Crispa Appears in The Mystery of the Acid Soil by Kate Mosse

Summary: Clematis crispa appears in The Mystery of the Acid Soil, short story by Kate Mosse for Marple: Twelve New Mysteries copyrighted by Agatha Christie Limited.

"God talks to human beings through many vectors: through each other, through organized religion, through the great books of those religions, through wise people, through art and music and literature and poetry, but nowhere with such detail and grace and color and joy as through creation. When we destroy a species, when we destroy a special place, we're diminishing our capacity to sense the divine, understand who God is and what our own potential is." Robert Francis Kennedy Jr., April 19, 2023, Boston Park Plaza Hotel, Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts.

“And there’s many people out there who want us to move to the next planet already and I’m like, hang on, let’s not give up on this planet yet," William, Prince of Wales, July 31, 2023, Sorted Food food truck, London, England, United Kingdom.

Kate Mosse addresses two plants alone by their scientific appellation in The Mystery of the Acid Soil. She affirms common-named blue jasmine, curl-flower, swamp leather-flower as Clematis crispa (from Greek κλῆμα, “branch, twig”; and from Latin crispa, “crimped, curly, tremulous”) scientifically; illustration of "Curly clematis Clematis crispa Linnaeus," from specimen growing near Yemassee, Lowcountry region, South Carolina, by American Quaker botanical artist and naturalist Mary Morris Vaux Walcott (July 31, 1860-Aug. 22, 1940), in M.V. Walcott, North American wild flowers, vol. 2 (1925), Plate 150: Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr

Clematis crispa, commonly blue jasmine, curl-flower or swamp leather-flower, appears in The Mystery of the Acid Soil, short story by Kate Mosse for Marple: Twelve New Mysteries copyrighted by Agatha Christie Limited.

Agatha Christie Limited bears us Sep. 13, 2022, for its 14-book Marple Collection, the book Marple: Twelve New Mysteries, beneath the HarperCollins Publishers’ William Morrow imprint. Kate Mosse constructs pages 299-300, 301-306, 306-313, 313-317, 317-320, 320-321, 321-323, 323-325, 326-327 and 327-333 as 10 configurations to communicate her contribution, the 10th, next-last chapter. Subchapter 3 delivers us Jane Marple describing as acid soil-devoted denizens garden azaleas, clematis crispa and rhododendrons, among which trio she only designates one scientific name-wise.

Tracheophyte- (from Greek τραχεῖα ἀρτηρία φυτά, “windpipe artery plants”) clade vascular tissues ensure clematis crispa everywhere-flowing energizing photosynthetic starches and sugars and upward-flowing solubilizing soil-extracted nutrients.

That clade furnishes clematis crispa reproductive spores, 16 per-cell chromosomes and, like angiosperm- (from Greek ἀγγεῖον σπέρμα, “container[ized] seed”) clade members, true leaves, roots and stems.

That flowering-plant clade generates bell-shaped, sepaled (from Latin sēparātus petalum, “[bud-enclosing] separate petal” via sēpalum), separate-gendered flowers before embryonic, outer-coated seeds within edible or non-edible fruits. Eudicot- (from Greek εὖ- δῐ- κοτυληδών, “good two cup[-like] cavity”) clade membership houses such flowering plants as buttercup-family, buttercup-order members, that have two germinated seed leaves. Ranunculales (from Latin rāna -unculus –ālis, “frog little pertaining [to]”) ordership invokes Ranunculaceae (from Latin rāna -unculus -āceae, “frog little -resembling”) buttercup and crowfoot family membership.

Clematis crispa (from Greek κλῆμα, “branch, twig”; and from Latin crispa, “crimped, curly, tremulous”) poisonously, toxically joins The Mystery of the Acid Soil by Kate Mosse.

Buttercup- and crowfoot-family membership keepsakes protoanemonin toxins that kindle blistering, itchy mucous-membrane and skin rashes; dizziness; nausea; and, more severely sometimes, hepatitis, jaundice, paralysis and spasms.

Air-drying Clematis crispa launches bonded molecules of anti-inflammatory, non-blistering anemonin, whose broken-down water molecules launch such non-toxic, protein-synthesizing dicarboxylic acids as aspartic and glutamic amino acids. Merely 3- to 9-foot- (0.9- to 2.4-meter-) high, 3- to 6-foot (0.9- to 1.8-meter-) spreading vines, mangled or minus vertical-maintaining materials, menace animal and human migrants. Naked stems niche alternate-positioned, entire-margined, pinnate (from Latin pinna, “feathered”; -ātus, “-ed” via pinnātus) leaves as 3 to 5 to even 7 egg- or lance-like leaflets.

Clematis crispa offers August-occurring The Mystery of the Acid Soil by Kate Mosse bell-shaped, blue-lavender or pink-white, clustered or individualized, downward-hanging, March- through September-originating, petal-less flowers.

One- to 3-inch- (2.54- to 7.6-centimeter-) long sepaled (from Latin sēparātus petalum, “separated petal”) flowers possess backward-curving, 1- to 2-inch- (2.54- to 5.08-centimeter-) long, urn-like blooms.

The months June through October quarter capsule-like, dry, feather-like silk-tailed, non-splitting, 1-inch- (2.54-centimeter-) long and wide, one-seeded, spider-headed achenes (from Greek ἀ χαίνω, “not to gape”). They regale cat-, dog-, horse-toxic, 1- to 3-inch- (2.54- to 7.6-centimeter-) long leaves not even 1 inch (2.54 centimeter) wide with fragile fruits and fragrant flowers. Nectaring, pollinating bees and butterflies and seed-spreading hummingbirds seek clematis crispa in clayey to loamy to sandy to silty, marsh-wooded, 2- to 6-plus-hour direct-sunned, well-drained soils.

The Mystery of the Acid Soil by Kate Mosse theoretically tolerates Clematis crispa at temperatures between -20 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit (-29 to 35 degrees Celsius).

Jane Marple perhaps somewhat amazes her audience in The Mystery of the Acid Soil by Kate Mosse. She announces as among her acid soil-loving appreciators Clematis crispa, aesthetic alien from the southeastern United States; Wednesday, April 22, 2015, 17:36, image of Curlflower (Clematis crispa), Catahoula National Wildlife Refuge, Jonesville, east central Louisiana: Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Kate Mosse addresses two plants alone by their scientific appellation in The Mystery of the Acid Soil. She affirms common-named blue jasmine, curl-flower, swamp leather-flower as Clematis crispa (from Greek κλῆμα, “branch, twig”; and from Latin crispa, “crimped, curly, tremulous”) scientifically; illustration of "Curly clematis Clematis crispa Linnaeus," from specimen growing near Yemassee, Lowcountry region, South Carolina, by American Quaker botanical artist and naturalist Mary Morris Vaux Walcott (July 31, 1860-Aug. 22, 1940), in M.V. Walcott, North American wild flowers, vol. 2 (1925), Plate 150: Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/33041360568/; Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42667955; Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress is not aware of any U.S. copyright or any other restrictions in the documents in this collection, via Library of Congress Book/Printed Material @ (catalog record) https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbc0001.2022rosen2315v02/, (specific image URL) https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbc0001.2022rosen2315v02/?sp=289; Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clematis_crispa,_by_Mary_Vaux_Walcott.jpg; via Southwest School of Botanical Medicine (SSBM): Paintings of Mary Vaux Walcott @ https://www.swsbm.com/Images/Walcott.html, (image specific URL) https://www.swsbm.com/Images/NewWolcott/Clematis_crispa.jpg

Jane Marple perhaps somewhat amazes her audience in The Mystery of the Acid Soil by Kate Mosse. She announces as among her acid soil-loving appreciators Clematis crispa, aesthetic alien from the southeastern United States; Wednesday, April 22, 2015, 17:36, image of Curlflower (Clematis crispa), Catahoula National Wildlife Refuge, Jonesville, east central Louisiana: Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Curlflower_-_Clematis_crispa,_Catahoula_National_Wildlife_Refuge,_Jonesville,_Louisiana.jpg; Judy Gallagher (Judy Gallagher), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/52450054@N04/25125660684/

For further information:

Brickell, Christopher; and Trevor Cole. (Editors-in-Chief). 2002. "Clematis Old man's beard, Travelers' joy." Pages 521-524. The American Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Plants & Flowers. New York NY: DK Publishing, Inc.

Brickell, Christopher; and Trevor Cole. (Editors-in-Chief). 2002. "Phacelia." Page 628. The American Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Plants & Flowers. New York NY: DK Publishing, Inc.

"Clematis crispa." Page 387. In: Hogan, Sean (Chief Consultant). 2003. Flora A Gardener's Encyclopedia. Volume I A-K. Portland Or: Timber Press, Inc.

Cranshaw, Whitney. 2004. "Clematis Chewing insects: margined blister beetle, twobanded Japanese weevil. Sucking insects: garden fleahopper, green peach aphid." Page 588. In: Appendix of Host Plant Genera and Associated Insects and Mites." Pages 577-627. Garden Insects of North America: The Ultimate Guide to Backyard Bugs. Princeton NJ; and Woodstock Oxfordshire UK: Princeton University Press.

Marriner, Derdriu. 5 April 2024. "The Mystery of the Acid Soil by Kate Mosse Allows Jane Marple Drinks." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-mystery-of-acid-soil-by-kate-mosse.html#google_vignette

Marriner, Derdriu. 29 March 2024. "The Mystery of the Acid Soil by Kate Mosse Airs Birds and Butterflies." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-mystery-of-acid-soil-by-kate-mosse.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 22 March 2024. "Tea Leaves Are Safer in The Mystery of the Acid Soil by Kate Mosse." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/03/tea-leaves-are-safer-in-mystery-of-acid.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 15 March 2024. "Jane Marple Ambles About The Mystery of the Acid Soil by Kate Mosse." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/03/jane-marple-ambles-about-mystery-of.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 8 March 2024. "The Mystery of the Acid Soil Avails Us of Jane Marple by Kate Mosse." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-mystery-of-acid-soil-avails-us-of.html

Mosse, Kate. 2022. "The Mystery of the Acid Soil." Pages 299-333. In: Agatha Christie. Marple: Twelve New Mysteries. New York NY: William Morrow Imprint, HarperCollins Publishers.

"Phacelia." Pages 1016-1018. In: Hogan, Sean (Chief Consultant). 2003. Flora A Gardener's Encyclopedia. Volume I A-K. Portland Or: Timber Press, Inc.

Sheng, Lu; Kongshu Ji; and Liangliang Yu. 24 September 2014. "Karyotype analysis on 11 species of the genus Clematis." Brazilian Journal of Botany 37(2). Springer. Received 11 March 2014. Accepted 1 September 2014. Published online 24 September 2014. Copyrighted 2014 Botanical Society of Sao Paulo. DOI 10.1007/s40415-014-0099-5
Available @ https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ji-Kongshu/publication/280713109_Karyotype_analysis_on_11_species_of_the_genus_Clematis/links/5d9df87e299bf13f40d0c881/Karyotype-analysis-on-11-species-of-the-genus-Clematis.pdf

Sugiura, T. 1940. "Studies on the Chromosome Numbers in Higher Plants. IV." Cytologia 10: 324-333.
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Tenenbaum, Frances. (Ed.) "Clematis." Pages 98-100. In: Encyclopedia of Garden Plqnts. Taylor's Guides to Gardening. Boston MA; New York NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Tenenbaum, Frances. (Ed.) "Phacelia." Page 297. In: Encyclopedia of Garden Plqnts. Taylor's Guides to Gardening. Boston MA; New York NY: Houghton Mifflin Company.