ARISTOLOCHIA SEMPERVIRENS

Family:- ARISTOLOCHIACEAE

Common Name:- Climbing birthwort

Synonyms:- Endodeca sempervirens.

Meaning:- Aristolochia (Gr) Best-childbirth.

Sempervirens (L) Evergreen, always green.

General description:- An evergreen climber.

Stems:-

a) up to 5 m.

b) climbing or rarely procumbent.

Leaves:-

1) Lamina:

a) up to 10 x 6 cm.

b) triangular-ovate, arrowhead-shaped (sagittate) or heart-shaped (cordate).

c) basal sinus shallow, the lobes not more than 1/7 as long as the leaf.

d) glossy-green, hairless (glabrous), leathery (coriaceous).

Flowers:-

a) 20-50 mm long,

b) yellow striped with purple, lips and throat covered in stiff white hairs.

c) limb brown or brownish-purple, short and oblique.

d) tube strongly curved, (Dutchman pipe shaped), slightly swollen towards the

base.

e) ovary and stems (pedicels) with fine short hairs (pubescent).

Fruit:-

1) Capsule:

a) 10-40 mm.

b) ovoid or oblong.

Key features:-

1) Flowers solitary.

2) Stem usually climbing, woody.

3) Leaves evergreen, coriaceous.

4) Ovary and pedicels pubescent.

Habitat:- Rocky places in woodland, hedges, road embankments, stone walls by

terraced fields, etc. 0-1800 m.

Distribution:- Peloponnisos SW mainland Greece, Kefallinia. - Mediterranean

region from Algeria to Palestine. Widespread and fairly common on Crete.

Flowering time:- Mar-July

Photo by:- Steve Lenton

Comments:-

Contrary to common belief this plant is not carnivorous. Insects attracted by its

smell of rotting meat descend into gaping mouth and down into the bulbous section,

where unable to escape owing to the downward pointing hairs, they become dusted

with pollen. There they remain until the flower begins to die and the hairs become

limp. Released they move onto the next flower and repeat the process pollinating it

in turn.