The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Aristolochia paucinervis is a low perennial geophyte (grows from a tuber or rootstock) from the western Mediterranean and Macaronesia, with saxophone-shaped flowers that attract flies. It is grown mainly as a botanical curiosity, and it is not a common garden or houseplant.
Aristolochia paucinervis is a herbaceous plant in the family Aristolochiaceae endemic to the western Mediterranean Basin.
Although there are few reports of acute human or animal poisoning by the Aristolochia paucinervis, plants of the Aristolochiaceae family are considered dangerous when consumed over long periods of time as the roots contain aristolochic acids (AAs). AAs are responsible for renal damage due to their nephrotoxic effects. When taken internally, AAs can be carcinogenic - rhizomes used over a long period of time can cause irreversible kidney damage, haematuria, and limb paralysis.
Aristolochia paucinervis is widely distributed throughout the western Mediterranean, including Madeira and the Canary Islands of Macaronesia, Morocco, the Iberian Peninsula (most of Portugal and primarily southern Spain), the Balearic Islands, southern France, a small part of Algeria and is thought to be extinct in Tunisia.
Aristolochia paucinervis has several medicinal uses. Ingesting the dried powdered root of Aristolochia paucinervis is used as a treatment of aortic palpitations, constipation, intestinal disorders, colic, gas gangrene, and as a poison antidote for snakebites. Additionally, the methanol extract from the leaves of Aristolochia paucinervis has anti-fungal properties and is effective against pathogenic fungi responsible for skin diseases and infections such as tinea, dermatitis, and mycoses. The most susceptible fungi were Epidermophyton floccosum and Trichophyton violaceum in contrast to Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Trichophyton rubrum which were less sensitive to the fractions tested. The leaves of Aristolochia paucinervis possess antibacterial activity - in a study conducted by Gadhi et al., Aristolochia paucinervis exhibited activity against Clostridium perfringens, Clostridioides difficile, Enterococcus faecalis, Micrococcus luteus, and Bacillus subtilis, as seen by the minimum inhibitory concentration.
Indian birthwort · Aristolochia amara · Aristolochia argentina · Cairns Birdwing Butterfly Plant · Andalusian Dutchman's Pipe · Aristolochia boosii · Aristolochia bracteolata · Aristolochia cauliflora · Aristolochia ceropegioides · Aristolochia chalmersii · Aristolochia chilensis · Birthwort
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Aristolochia paucinervis 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.
