''Aristolochia watsonii'' (Watson's Dutchman's pipe, southwestern pipevine, Indian root, snakeroot) is a

perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

Aristolochia watsonii: Watson's Dutchman's Pipe / Desert Pipevine, Garden Oracle, Gardening in Tucson, Phoenix, and the Desert Southwest

in the birthwort family (

Aristolochiaceae The Aristolochiaceae () are a family, the birthwort family, of flowering plants with seven genera and about 400 known species belonging to the order Piperales. The type genus is ''Aristolochia'' L. Description They are mostly perennial, herb ...

), found growing among plants of the Arizona Uplands in the

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States (in Arizona ...

.Sonoran Desert Wildflowers, Richard Spellenberg, 2nd ed., 2012, The plant is inconspicuous, small and hard to spot, but can be found by following the

pipevine swallowtail ''Battus philenor'', the pipevine swallowtail or blue swallowtail, Retrieved April 19, 2018. is a swallowtail butterfly found in North America and Central America. This butterfly is black with iridescent-blue hindwings. They are found in many di ...

(blue swallowtail, ''Battus philenor'') which lays eggs on it.

Description

Growth pattern

It grows as

vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselv ...

with scrambling stems that create a dense, tangled mat over the years when growing on open ground.

Roots, stems, and leaves

According to one source, stems are long, with greenish-brown arrowhead-shaped leaves. Another source states stems can reach , in dense mats that are wide. It drops its leaves in the fall and winter (cold-

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

), and loses stems as well as leaves in a freeze. In full sun and drought conditions, leaves turn from green to purple-brown.

Inflorescence and fruit

It has "bizarre" looking, musky-smelling flowers, which resemble the ear of a rodent. It blooms from April to October. flowers are shaped like a rodent's ear are green or burgundy-brown outside to the ear rim, then green speckled with burgundy-brown inside, with hairs on the opening ear rim. Flowers last 1–2 days. Fruits are capsules having five vertical ribs with triangular-shaped flat and black seeds in each of five compartments.

Ecological interactions

Flowers shaped and smelling like a rodent's ear attract small blood-sucking flies, which are deceived by the appearance and odor and get trapped in the convoluted flower form for a day, then escape to pollinate another plant. It attracts the

, and is where the butterfly gets its distasteful toxins that protect the butterfly from predation. The caterpillar may eat all of the leaves on a plant, but they then grow back.

Toxicity

All parts of this plant are

toxic Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a subst ...

to humans.

Habitat and Distribution

It is found from

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

to western

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, in mountains at elevations from .

Human use

Native Americans believed it could be used to treat snakebites, hence its common names Indian root or snakeroot. It is currently found in some nurseries that feature native plants as it is a good landscape plant in a butterfly garden.Soule, J.A. 2011. ''Butterfly Gardening in Southern Arizona.'' Tierra del Sol Press.

References

External links

*Three images o
''"Pipevine (Aristolochia watsonii), here in flower"'', ''"Eggs of the Pipevine Swallowtail on Aristolochia watsonii"'', and ''"A large Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillar that's about ready to pupate munches on Pipevine"''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q15465972 watsonii