In either its flowering state or when it has gone to seed, this is a very pretty plant up close. It's a tall, climbing, perennial which reaches immense proportions when it clambers over hedges and trees. It has very pretty cream-coloured fragrant flowers (15-20mm across) with 4-petal-like sepals and very prominent stamens which are quite spread out. These flowers are borne in clusters and bloom from July to September. The leaves are opposite and pinnate, usually in 5 leaflets. The seeds are in masses of feathery, silvery plumes which are borne on the wind. This is a garden escape, not a native plant, and it belongs to the family Ranunculaceae.
My first record of this plant is in 1976 at Killiney, Co Dublin and I photographed it in Tullycanna, Co Wexford in 2006.
If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre
