Occidentalis: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this species. 

	leaves with 3 leaflets; NOT [leaves with 5 leaflets]
	flowers solitary; NOT [flowers in panicles or corymbs]
	flowers blue or purple; NOT [flowers yellow or white]

Clematis: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora and Flora of Alberta leading to this genus. 

	woody climbing plants
	plants with opposite leaves; NOT [leaves either basal or alternate]
	plants without petals but with colored sepals
	fruit with persistent feathery style

Ranunculaceae: Answers to key questions in Budd's Flora  leading to this family.  Not all the answers apply to all genera in Ranunculaceae found in the Canadian prairies, but they all apply to Clematis. 

	herbs; NOT [shrubs or trees]
	plants not parasitic on branches of trees
	plants rooted in soil or water
	land plants; NOT [water plants]
	plants with stem or stemless, but with more than one pair of leaves; NOT [plants stemless with a single pair of large reniform leaves]
	plants climbing
	leaves not scale-like
	leaves opposite; NOT [leaves alternate, lower ones sometimes opposite]
	leaves without stipules; NOT [leaves with stipules free or sheathing the stem]
	flowers not imbedded in stem
	flowers with only one floral ring, with sepals but not petals
	stamens and pistils in each flower; NOT [stamens or pistils in separate flowers on the same plant]
	calyx colored