Aristolochia Macrophylla AKA (A. Durior)

Spending my childhood in the mountains of Pennsylvania I fondly remember the living shade curtains of this Dutchmans Pipevine gracing verandas and porches. The ginormous heart shaped 6-12” leaves overlap and add a lush, elegant, jungle vibe to any space. To create shade simply train up strings or lattice to create living shade and privacy. One established it rapidly grows up to 20-40 ft filling out spaces without tearing down or damaging structures. Flowers resembling pipes are slightly hidden by the lush foliage, but create an interesting conversation piece.

This Eastern USA native pipevine is a host plant for pipevine swallowtail butterflies, whose caterpillars depend on Aristolochia as the sole foodsource. Want to attract pipevine swallowtail butterfies to your own garden? Plant this beautiful native vine. Plant it and they will come! Deciduous. Sun- part shade and occasional water. Not fussy. Deciduous. Zone 4-9

Note: BEWARE! There are MANY Aristolochia Pipevines in commerce and sadly many people are planting the ones from South America, especially Grandiflora for the larger flowers. These species are TOXIC and will kill the caterpillars! All species have some toxins which is desirable, but many are TOO TOXIC, like Grandiflora. Mama Swallowtails will lay eggs on any of them. The emerging caterpillars eat the leaves and a slight toxin builds up , making them undesirable for birds and predators. The ones that are safe host plants for Swallowtails are Aristolochia californica and Aristolochia Macrophylla. The one for sale here is Macrophylla which is my favorite, it’s the East Coast version with large leaves.

I encourage you to find an aristolochia that suits your garden to support the butterflies! Here’s a list of SAFE ones to plant that will assist the proliferation of these beautiful butterflies: Aristolochia Macrophylla AKA (Durior), Aristolochia californica, Aristolochia reticulata (Texas Dutchmans Pipe), Aristolochia serpentaria (Virginia Snakeroot), Aristolochia tomentosa (Wolly Dutchmans pipe)

So… if your plant has some caterpillars in summer, not to worry. Be grateful… It won’t defoliate the vine and you will be able to enjoy a garden filled with iridescent blue butterflies!