The Champion Exhibit for our April Meeting was a Pelican Flower ‘Aristlochia grandiflora’ Aristolochia grandiflora, is a deciduous vine with one of the world’s largest flowers that emits an odor that smells like rotting meat, attracting flies. Aristolochia grandiflora has been used for ornamental purposes, as a food source, and in traditional medicine. A. grandiflora is a food source for swallowtail butterfly larvae. These butterflies become unpalatable to predators when they consume the terpenes in this plant. Other species of Aristolochia are also called “pelican flowers”; e.g. Aristolochia gigantea (giant pelican flower) and Aristolochia nana (tiny pelican flower). Another member of the family, Dutchman’s pipe (Aristolochia elegans) is regarded as an environmental weed in Queensland and New South Wales, and as a potential environmental weed or “sleeper weed” in many other regions of Australia. Dutchman’s pipe (brisbane.qld.gov.au)
Photo: John Bennett
