Plant Name:  Aristolochia californica

Common name:  Dutchman’s Pipe

Plant type:  Deciduous Vine

Height:  10- 15 (up to 20 feet), plant requires a trellis, or other vertical support.

Bloom Time:  Later winter/Early Spring  

Flower Color:  Flowers are pale Green with dark maroon veins. Flowers are shaped like curved pipes with a flared bowl.

Exposure:  Part Shade

Soil Requirements: Tolerates most soils   

Water Needs:  Somewhat drought tolerant, but likes moisture areas; in nature is grows in moist wooded areas, alongside creeks and streams.

Attributes: Heart-shaped leaves on woody stems. Musty odious flowers attract carrion-feeding flies & gnats for pollination; insects eventually escape after plant attaches pollen to them. Plant is host for native Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly (Battus philenor). Aristolochia californica is the only food source of the Pipevine Swallowtail!  Dutchman ’s Pipe provides habitat for other beneficial insects.

Firewise:  Unable to determine

Native to: Sacramento Valley, Northern Sierra Nevada foothills, San Francisco Bay Area, Northern Inner California Coast Ranges, Southeastern Klamath Mountains

USDA Hardiness Zone: 8 -10

Report by: Carlotta Lucas, AGC Member

Photo of Flowers By: peganum from Small Dole, England – Aristolochia californica, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47474436

Photo of Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillar by: Joanie Kintscher, AGC Member & Past President