Family: birthworts (Aristolochiaceae)
Blooming time: May–July
Size: 30–90 cm
Habitat: among shrubs, hedges, and cultivated soils
The erect stem of the common birthwort (Aristolochia clematitis) is unbranched. It is leafy with alternately arranged petiolate leaves with a deeply heart-shaped base. Leaves up to 10 cm long are glabrous. In their leaf axils, a few two-lipped yellow flowers bloom. Tubular flowers are belly-shaped at the base and function as a trap for pollinators. This scent lures along a narrow tube to the pistil and the stamens housed in a belly-shaped chamber at the base of the flower. Only here can the visitor turn and thereby pollinate the flower, after which it crawls back out unharmed along the tube. The pendant, pear-shaped fruits are green. The common birthwort is poisonous.
It thrives in lowlands, hence it is more common in the northeast and southwest parts of Slovenia; in the Alpine and pre-Alpine world it is absent.
