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United States / Grow / devil's darning needles

devil's darning needles (Clematis virginiana)
Photo: (c) Tom Norton, some rights reserved (CC BY) (CC BY), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

devil's darning needles

Clematis virginiana · Ranunculaceae · all Clematis records · also called Virgin's bower clematis · Wikipedia

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Is this one for your yard?

Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.

The Forest Service and Ohio State place devil’s darning needles on their avoid side, so it is not a fire-resistant choice near structures.

Two sources reach the same practical conclusion. The USDA Forest Service and state Firewise programs rated the vine in the least favorable category on their four-level scale. They describe it as a useful screen on a chain-link fence only if it does not touch structures. Ohio State University Extension assigned it H flammability, which falls in the avoid range of its five-band scale, although VH is the highest band. Virginia Tech also included the plant in its firewise guidance, but its rating cell was blank.

Devil’s darning needles is a vine that can reach about 40 feet at maturity, so placement matters. Its size and the specific warning about keeping it from structures make it a poor choice beside a house, deck, or other building. Native to the northeastern, southeastern, north-central, and south-central United States, the vine is hardy to USDA zone 5a and grows in full sun with moderate water.

The blank Virginia rating does not outweigh the two explicit warnings. Both institutions that assigned a flammability verdict placed Clematis virginiana on the unfavorable side of their own scales, and the clearest guidance is to keep it separated from structures.

Fire-resistant vines instead

Form
vine
Mature height
~40 ft
Light
Full sun
Water need
moderate
Rated in
Ohio / Midwest; Virginia / Mid-Atlantic; eastern US
On this lot

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence
Highly flammable — location does not change the cited classification.
Placement evidence
1 source placement record; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions
Ohio / Midwest; Virginia / Mid-Atlantic; eastern US
Typed publication scope: 2 scopes across 2 cited fire sources
  • Firewise Landscaping (OSU Extension Bulletin 921) · Official scoped edition
    • OH; partial normalized coverage · 2006-03-01

      Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 921 is an Ohio publication that describes Ohio fire seasons and landscape conditions and labels nativity to Ohio. FireApproved publishes 352 exact source-owning plant records from its eight rated tables. This historical publication scope does not assert current extension endorsement or that a listed plant suits every Ohio site.

  • Virginia Firescapes — Firewise Landscaping for Woodland Homes (430-300) · Official scoped edition
    • VA; partial normalized coverage · 2009-04-15

      Virginia Cooperative Extension's publication opens with Virginia wildfire conditions, identifies its Virginia Firewise Landscaping Task Force, and labels plants native to Virginia. FireApproved publishes 306 exact source owners. Publication scope does not establish parcel suitability or current endorsement of this archived 2009 list.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution
Documented in AL, AR, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, VT, WI, WV.
Native range
Current cited native range in AL, AR, CT, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, VT, WI, WV.
USDA hardiness
Documented minimum 3a; no upper limit is documented.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Native and introduced range evidence

These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval. Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.

Current native

37

exact source areas

Current introduced

0

exact source areas

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

37 native source areas · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04
  • Alabama (AL)
  • Arkansas (AR)
  • Connecticut (CT)
  • Delaware (DE)
  • Florida (FL)
  • Georgia (GA)
  • Iowa (IA)
  • Illinois (IL)
  • Indiana (IN)
  • Kansas (KS)
  • Kentucky (KY)
  • Louisiana (LA)
  • Massachusetts (MA)
  • Maryland (MD)
  • Maine (ME)
  • Michigan (MI)
  • Minnesota (MN)
  • Missouri (MO)
  • Mississippi (MS)
  • North Carolina (NC)
  • North Dakota (ND)
  • Nebraska (NE)
  • New Hampshire (NH)
  • New Jersey (NJ)
  • New York (NY)
  • Ohio (OH)
  • Oklahoma (OK)
  • Pennsylvania (PA)
  • Rhode I. (RI)
  • South Carolina (SC)
  • South Dakota (SD)
  • Tennessee (TN)
  • Texas (TX)
  • Virginia (VA)
  • Vermont (VT)
  • Wisconsin (WI)
  • West Virginia (WV)

The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Avoids (2)

Listed without a rating (1)

Fire-resistant vines instead

Virginia creeper
Parthenocissus quinquifolia trumpet creeper
Campsis radicans common hop
Humulus lupulus trumpet honeysuckle
Lonicera sempervirens yellow passionflower
Passiflora lutea coastal bedstraw
Rubia peregrina

Fire-resistant vines listed above

Same genus in the directory · the Clematis group page

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · Wikipedia · ITIS

Clematis virginiana (Virgin's bower clematis). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/clematis-virginiana/. Last verified 2026-08-23.