Clematis hirsutissima has many common names, such as sugar bowl, hairy clematis, leather flower, Douglas’ clematis, vase flower, and lion’s beard. This is an attractive, fuzzy purple flower that I haven’t found very often. I recently saw a handful of these blooms at the Eagle’s Nest Open Space in northern Colorado. Although I hiked a few miles, I only found them on one sheltered hillside. I have also spotted them in the Tetons in July.
These woolly flowers nod on their long stalks and are difficult to photograph in the nearby foothills because of being hidden in high grass. The sugarbowls I saw in western Wyoming last summer (see the photo below) were in a much more forested environment. 
Like the prairie crocus, sugarbowls have very funky, fizzy seedheads. The common name lion’s beard likely comes from these celebratory-looking growths of feathery plumes. You can see the start of the seedhead as the furry yellow center of the purple flowers, but you have to get close to the ground to see this, because of all the nodding going on!
fizzynotions 