Plant Family: Aristolochiaceae

This is a delicate trailing scrambler, relies on the support of grasses, herbs and low shrubs. Identifiable by it's brownish-green, tubular flowers, small pear-shaped ribbed fruit and spearheaded shaped leaves, this species possesses an amazing ability to flower and fruit on very young plants.
This slender low growing vine prefers the more open drier habitats of Eucalypt, grassy woodlands and open forests.

The caterpillars speedily devour many of the host plant's leaves, leaving the host plant virtually leafless. However it is now known that Aristolochia meridionalis can recover rapidly from defoliation given the right conditions. It has an underground tuber in which it stores its reserves. It is known to remain dormant as an underground tuber without any sign of stems or foliage for up to three years, while waiting for the right soil moisture and climatic conditions to resprout (pers. com. D.P. Sands). This may explain to some extent its seeming rarity.

Host plant for the Clearwing Swallowtail butterfly, Cressida cressida

Item added 21 January 2016

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