Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Piperales > Aristolochiaceae > Aristolochia > Aristolochia clematitis

Aristolochia clematitis (birthwort)

Synonyms: Aristolochia clematitis f. undulata; Aristolochia infesta; Aristolochia longa (heterotypic); Aristolochia rotunda (heterotypic); Aristolochia tenuis

Wikipedia Abstract

Aristolochia clematitis, the (European) birthwort, is a twining herbaceous plant in the Aristolochiaceae family, which is native to Europe. The leaves are heart shaped and the flowers are pale yellow and tubular in form. The plant seeks light by ascending the stems of surrounding plants.
View Wikipedia Record: Aristolochia clematitis

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Medium-Low
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Hazards [2]  The root and stem are poisonous; The plant contains aristolochic acid, this has received rather mixed reports on its toxicity. According to one report aristolochic acid stimulates white blood cell activity and speeds the healing of wounds, but is also carcinogenic and damaging to the kidneys; Another report says that it is an active antitumour agent but is too toxic for clinical use; Another report says that aristolochic acid has anti-cancer properties and can be used in conjunction with chemotherapy and radiotherapy and that it also increases the cellular immunity and phagocytosis function of the phagocytic cells;
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [2]  Flies
Scent [2]  The flowers have a foetid smell of decaying flesh in order to attract flies for pollination.
Structure [4]  Vine
Height [2]  28 inches (0.7 m)
Width [2]  20 inches (0.5 m)
Light Preference [3]  Mixed Sun/Shade
Soil Acidity [3]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [3]  Rich
Soil Moisture [3]  Mostly Dry
View Plants For A Future Record : Aristolochia clematitis

Protected Areas

Predators

Sericinus montela (Dragon Swallowtail)[5]
Zerynthia cerisy (Eastern Festoon)[5]
Zerynthia polyxena (Southern Festoon)[6]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3Ellenberg, H., Weber, H.E., Dull, R., Wirth, V., Werner, W., Paulissen, D. (1991) Zeigerwerte von Pflanzen in Mitteleuropa. Scripta Geobotanica 18, 1–248
♦ 4USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture
♦ 5Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 6HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0