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Aristolochia californica
California pipevine is a deciduous, woody climbing vine native to northern California, growing from rhizomes and twining up shrubs and trees. It is grown in gardens for its unusual pipe-shaped flowers, and it is toxic, so keep it away from people and animals.
Aristolochia californica, the California pipevine, California Dutchman's-pipe, or California snakeroot is a perennial woody vine of western North America.
Like the other members of the family Aristolochiaceae, A. californica is highly toxic, producing a group of secondary metabolites known as aristolochic acids. Aristolochic acids are compounds that are composed of nitrophenanthrene carboxylic acids that have been utilized for medicinal purposes, being used in Chinese herbal medicines and usually included as a part of some weight-loss regimens. However, due to several warnings of the toxic effects of aristolochic acids by the US Food and Drug Administration and regulatory authorities of other countries, the sale and usage of aristolochic acids in medicine has been banned in multiple countries. The reasoning for this is that aristolochic acids act as a carcinogen and a nephrotoxin, inducing urothelial cancers and kidney failure. It has also been found that it may even act as a mutagen.
The vine is endemic to northern California. It is native to the Sacramento Valley, northern Sierra Nevada foothills, San Francisco Bay Area, Northern Inner California Coast Ranges, southeastern Klamath Mountains.
Aristolochia arborea · Aristolochia cucurbitifolia · Aristolochia cucurbitoides · Aristolochia fangchi · Aristolochia forrestiana · Aristolochia hainanensis · Aristolochia hyperxantha · Aristolochia obliqua · Aristolochia quangbinhensis · Aristolochia scytophylla · Aristolochia stevensii · Pipevine
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Aristolochia californica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
