Old man's beard

Description:

Clematis vitalba is a climbing shrub with branched, grooved stems, deciduous leaves, and scented greeny-white flowers with fluffy underlying sepals. The many fruits formed in each inflorescence have long silky appendages which, seen together, give the characteristic appearance of Old Man's beard. The grooves along the stems of C. vitalba can easily be felt when handling the plant. C. vitalba has a preference for base rich alkaline soils and moist climate with warm summers.

Notes:

I found this guy suffocating a pear tree, which is almost dead except a few green branches up top and some shoots at the bottom.