Species
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Aristolochia gigantea Mart. & Zucc.

Brazilian Dutchman's pipe, duckflower

Climate known 64 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

About the genus · Aristolochia

Aristolochia is a large plant genus with over 500 species that is the type genus of the family Aristolochiaceae. Its members are commonly known as birthwort, pipevine or Dutchman's pipe and are widespread and occur in diverse climates. Some species, like A. utriformis and A. westlandii, are threatened with extinction.

Text from Wikipedia, “Aristolochia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Aristolochiaceae
Described by
Mart. & Zucc.
Native to
Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South
Wild records
219 in range· 137 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Feb, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1198mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Dec 192 mm (CHELSA)
Light
23–38DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1198 mm a year, wettest December at 192 mm, driest August at 28 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 10.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Aristolochia mariquitensis Mutis; Howardia gigantea (Mart. & Zucc.) Klotzsch.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (919 mm of 1198 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.6 °C against a yearly mean of 22.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1198 mm a year, wettest December at 192 mm, driest August at 28 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1198 mm a year at the habitat, 919 mm of it October to March. Wettest month December at 192 mm, driest August at 28 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 718 mm to 1689 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 38 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 10.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 10.4 °C, the absolute minimum 4.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.4 °C in July (across the envelope cells 11.8 °C to 17.4 °C), warmest day 28.4 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 24 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Feb; mean night from 14 °C in Jul to 20 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1198 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 142 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 4.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°36.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)4.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 23–38RH 59–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 142 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 26–3028 / 27–3028 / 26–3027 / 25–2925 / 22–2724 / 21–2624 / 21–2625 / 22–2826 / 23–2928 / 24–3028 / 25–3028 / 26–30
Night °C20 / 18–2220 / 18–2219 / 18–2218 / 17–2117 / 14–2015 / 12–1814 / 12–1715 / 13–1817 / 14–1918 / 16–2019 / 17–2119 / 18–21
Rain mm176 / 88–300128 / 74–213159 / 107–21981 / 49–12050 / 16–10441 / 5–8134 / 5–7328 / 6–6545 / 15–100108 / 33–146156 / 71–235192 / 92–281
DLI38 / 35–4038 / 36–4034 / 32–3730 / 28–3325 / 23–3123 / 21–3024 / 22–3128 / 26–3633 / 29–3937 / 32–4037 / 33–4036 / 34–39
RH %63 / 58–6763 / 58–6663 / 59–6762 / 59–6762 / 56–6762 / 54–6761 / 51–6759 / 49–6559 / 50–6459 / 55–6661 / 58–6663 / 59–67

Each figure is the median across the 142 grid cells holding the 210 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2114:2642 (-15.725, -47.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 142 distinct grid cells holding the 210 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2114:2642 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -15.50_-48.125, lapse-corrected +151 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1038 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBrazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South
Kew's description“climber” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-22.906, -47.061 · in the densest population, 159 records (73% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 219 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 137 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1237 km away. 86 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 9 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 219 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Aristolochia giganteaAristolochia giganteaAristolochia giganteaAristolochia giganteaAristolochia giganteaAristolochia giganteaAristolochia giganteaAristolochia gigantea

Photographs: (c) alessandradalia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Aristolochia gigantea, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

The role of volatiles in plant communication
Harro J. Bouwmeester, Robert C. Schuurink, Petra Bleeker, Florian P. Schiestl (2019) · The Plant Journal
Liana Abundance, Diversity, and Distribution on Barro Colorado Island, Panama
Stefan A. Schnitzer, Scott A. Mangan, James W. Dalling, Claire A. Baldeck (2012) · PLoS ONE
The betrayed thief – the extraordinary strategy of A ristolochia rotunda to deceive its pollinators
Birgit Oelschlägel, Matthias Nuß, M. von Tschirnhaus, Claudia Pätzold (2014) · New Phytologist
Wound Responses in Girdled Stems of Lianas
David R. Dobbins, Jack B. Fisher (1986) · Botanical Gazette
Vessel Diameters in Roots Versus Stems of Tropical Lianas and Other Growth Forms
Frank W. Ewers, Matthew R. Carlton, Jack B. Fisher, Kimberly J. Kolb (1997) · IAWA Journal - KU Leuven/IAWA Journal
Chemical Constituents and Pharmacology of the Aristolochia (馬兜鈴 mădōu ling) species
Ping‐Chung Kuo, Yue‐Chiun Li, Tian-Shung Wu (2012) · Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine
Atividade antibacteriana de extrato hidro-alcoólico de folhas de jambolão (Syzygium cumini (L.) Skells)
Andrea Pinto Loguercio, Alice Battistin, Águeda Castagna de Vargas, Andréia Henzel (2005) · Ciência Rural
An Update on the Function, Biosynthesis and Regulation of Floral Volatile Terpenoids
Zhenglin Qiao, Huizhen Hu, Senbao Shi, Xuemei Yuan (2021) · Horticulturae
Forest and connectivity loss simplify tropical pollination networks
Patrícia Alves Ferreira, Danilo Bôscolo, Luciano Elsinor Lopes, Luísa G. Carvalheiro (2020) · Oecologia
De novoAssembly and Comparative Analyses of Mitochondrial Genomes in Piperales
Runxian Yu, Xudong Chen, Lingjie Long, Matthias Jost (2023) · Genome Biology and Evolution
Bumblebees distinguish floral scent patterns, and can transfer these to corresponding visual patterns
David A. Lawson, Lars Chıttka, Heather M. Whitney, Sean A. Rands (2018) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
Aristolactams and Alkamides of Aristolochia gigantea
Juliana Cristina Holzbach, Lucia M.X. Lopes (2010) · Molecules

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Aristolochia 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 65 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.