Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden, South Africa

Common name: reuse-oupa-se-pyp, Brazilian Dutchman's pipe, giant Dutchman's pipe

Family: Aristolochiaceae (Birthwort)

Distribution: Brazil

Habitat: Humid forest

IUCN Red list: Not evaluated

Life form: Vine / liana / climber

Comments: This is an eye-catching evergreen climber with unusual flowers which are expertly adapted for its own pollination. The flower doesn't have typical petals, but consists of a large burgundy structure, a floral tube and a chamber at the base of the tube. The plant attracts its pollinator, the carrion fly, to the flower by mimicking rotten meat in its burgundy colouration. Many Aristolochia species also emit a foetic scent for this purpose, but curiously this species emits a citronella-like scent. A fly that investigates the flower will soon enter the floral tube and find that it cannot exit the tube again due to downward-pointing hairs covering the interior of the tube. Forced to climb downwards, the fly will enter the chamber at the base of the tube, where the flower's reproductive organs are housed. The flower will hold the fly capture here for a day while the fly gets covered in the flower's pollen. After a day, the hairs in the tube will start wilting and the pollen-covered fly can escape. Now, when it visits another flower in the same way, it will carry the pollen straight to its reproductive parts and pollinate the flower.