Pipevines : The Flowers That Trap Their Pollinators

This video was filmed at THE GREEN ARK, a huge ethnobotanical garden near San Jose, Costa Rica started by my friend Thom decades ago. More info at https://theark.green/

The genus Aristolochia contains over 500 species, most of which occur at tropical latitudes around the world. Thus episode focuses mainly on 4 species from the new world tropics, primarily:
Aristolochia ringens,
Aristolochia leuconeura,
Aristolochia gigantea,
& Aristolochia grandiflora.

All these flowers have their sexual parts fused into a columnar structure called a Gynostemium with male parts (anthers) below and female parts (stigma) up top and are protogynous: they are facultatively female first then become male later in order to avoid self-pollination.

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