Isotrema tomentosum (Sims) H. Huber

Woolly Dutchman's Pipe; Pipevine; Hairy Dutchman's Pipe

Vine

Perennial

Vascular

Woolly Dutchman's Pipe is a native woody vine in the Birthwort family (Aristolochiaceae). It can be found throughout most of Alabama. Woolly Dutchman's Pipe occurs along streams and rivers and in bottomland hardwood forests. It is a twining woody vine reaching 60 or more feet in length. Young stems are green and pubescent. Older stems are light to dark gray with thin bark. The leaves are alternate, petiolate, cordate in outline, with entire margins. The leaves are pubescent and palmately veined. Flowers are solitary from the axils of the leaves on new growth. The flowers are tubular and bent or curved in the fashion of the letter J. The corolla is absent and the calyx has 3 triangular lobes that are yellow-green, sometimes marked with spots or streaks of reddish brown. The exterior of the tube is pubescent. The annulus (a circular area around the opening of the flower) is dark reddish-purple and wrinkled. The fruit is a large elliptical capsule. The seed are flat and triangular. Woolly Dutchman's Pipe is a larval food for the Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor). It is sometimes available from native plant nurseries. Woolly Dutchman's Pipe prefers a moist, organic rich soil and full sun. Plants require a trellis for climbing or can be trained up existing trees.--A. Diamond

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Native FAC (NWPL)

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