Print This Page

White-veined Pipevine




Common Name: WHITE-VEINED PIPEVINE

Botanical Name:  Aristilochia fimbriata

Habit:  White-Veined Dutchman’s pipe, unlike the other Dutchman’s pipe, is more of a ground cover. Rather than forming a large vine that grows up and around everywhere, it only gets about two feet long with beautiful little yellow brown flowers, about an inch long. They’re kind of intricate. You need to view them up close to appreciate them. Morning sun or bright shade. An herbaceous, perennial groundcover with wide, white-veined leaves and unique brownish flowers resembling, as the common name suggests, an old-fashioned meerschaum pipe. The real ornamental features are the leaves, which are round with bright silver veins.

Culture: Easy to grow in sun partial shade. Low maintenance and water requirements

Uses:  Pipevine attracts butterflies, especially pipevine swallowtails, whose caterpillars will eat it to the ground several times per summer. As a perennial, pipevine seems to appear and disappear constantly - but it adds the telltale color of black and blue butterflies to the garden all summer long. It’s also great in a hanging basket. Native to Argentina.

Notes:  Water well to establish. Be careful not to inadvertently weed it, as it resembles snailseed and grows in the same shady settings.




  Search Library Topics      Search Newspaper Columns