bizarre plants - aristolochia
Two years ago, we bought a Dutchman's Pipe Vine, or Aristolochia at the USF Botanical Gardens . I'd admired the large vine they had climbing the trellis at the entrance to the plant sale area. I'd seen another one at Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg, as part of the butterfly garden. The flowers were so elegantly strange that I wanted one. Often, when I visit these gardens, I think about just pinching a bit of this or that, and rooting it when I get home. I was a good garden visitor, and bought a plant instead. Ours struggled the first year. Then we had our killer freeze this last winter and I thought it was a goner. It came back and has rewarded us with its first flowers. I expected them to stink, like the carrion flower we have, but they smell very much like lemons. But, if you crush the leaves...stink-o-rama. The plant is larval food for the Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly . Chemicals from the pipevin...