My Weird Vine - Giant Aristolochia October 7, 2012

Giant Aristolochia, common name Giant Pipevine, has finally bloomed for me.  I wasn't sure it was going to come back at all after the drought last summer and the cold winter (it is a tender perennial in Brenham).  I grow it because it has unusual flowers, but also because it is the larval food for the Pipevine Swallowtail.  Pipevine is the only plant on which the Pipevine Swallowtail will lay her eggs.  Aristolochia is a fall bloomer, and it dies to the ground in the winter.  Mulch well in the winter.

So, I guess I don't have to tell you what these flowers remind me of - but I will!  They remind me of a scrotum.