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Aristolochia clematitis; photograph eiblmatthias6, CC BY-SA, via GBIF CC BY-SAeiblmatthias6, CC BY-SA, via GBIF

Aristolochia clematitis L.

Birthwort; Heartwort

Aristolochiaceae · Austria, Belgium +30

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Aristolochia clematitis, photograph Дмитрий Дунин, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFAristolochia clematitis, photograph chlo Ambrass, CC BY-SA, via GBIFAristolochia clematitis, photograph Татьяна Максимова, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFAristolochia clematitis, photograph Stéphane Adamowicz, CC BY-SA, via GBIFAristolochia clematitis, photograph Stéphane Adamowicz, CC BY-SA, via GBIFAristolochia clematitis, photograph Stéphane Adamowicz, CC BY-SA, via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-6.2°C
Record low -17.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
25°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
723mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
6–37DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Aristolochia clematitis, or European birthwort, is a twining herbaceous plant in the family Aristolochiaceae, which is native to most of central and southern Europe and parts of western Asia, and naturalised further north in Europe.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Aristolochia clematitis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Aristolochia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (522 mm of 733 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and May to July. Mean temperature moves 17.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to January and March to July.

Rain

733 mm in the median year at the habitat, 522 mm of it September to January and May to July. Wettest month October at 75 mm, driest month February at 48 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 559 mm to 980 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 723 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 733 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 6 to 37 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 4, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -6.2 °C, the absolute minimum -17.6 °C, 2,458 frost nights in 44 years, 55.9 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 0.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -6.6 °C to 3.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 24.9 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -6.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -180 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Aristolochia clematitis through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 0.2 °C; 733 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost36.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-17.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 6–37RH 57–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 1223 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C6 / -1–108 / -1–1111 / 5–1415 / 12–1719 / 17–2223 / 20–2625 / 23–2925 / 22–2921 / 18–2416 / 12–1910 / 4–147 / 0–10
Night °C0 / -7–30 / -7–33 / -3–66 / 3–810 / 8–1213 / 12–1616 / 14–1915 / 14–1912 / 10–159 / 5–124 / -1–71 / -5–4
Rain mm59 / 34–8248 / 32–6751 / 34–6855 / 35–8465 / 47–9763 / 39–8560 / 26–8157 / 38–8063 / 49–10775 / 40–12468 / 45–10769 / 43–99
DLI7 / 5–1113 / 10–1721 / 18–2729 / 27–3435 / 33–4037 / 35–4437 / 34–4532 / 29–3924 / 19–2915 / 11–198 / 6–136 / 4–10
RH %66 / 59–7063 / 58–6761 / 56–6458 / 56–6058 / 55–6158 / 54–6057 / 53–6057 / 54–6060 / 56–6263 / 60–6566 / 60–6867 / 60–70
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 1223 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1488 records in those cells; 9 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 898:3696 (45.075, 4.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -17.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -6.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1223 distinct grid cells holding 1488 of the 1498 in-range records (9 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 898:3696 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 45.00_5.000, lapse-corrected -180 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 187 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAustria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Baleares, Corse, France, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Baltic States, Krym, Central European Russia, East European Russia, South European Russia, Northwest European Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Turkey · introduced: Denmark, Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Ontario, Québec, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker43.925, 4.214 · in the densest population, 568 records (35% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1646 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1488 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1498 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1240 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 43 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 148 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1646 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Aristolochia clematitis, photograph 1did not loadAristolochia clematitis, photograph 2did not loadAristolochia clematitis, photograph 3did not loadAristolochia clematitis, photograph 4did not loadAristolochia clematitis, photograph 5did not loadAristolochia clematitis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Дмитрий Дунин, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; chlo Ambrass, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Татьяна Максимова, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Stéphane Adamowicz, CC BY-SA, via GBIF (3).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Vallisneria spiralis Vallisneria spiralis Tapegrass Photo: CC BY, DDutreyPlantago arenaria Plantago arenaria Branched plantain Photo: CC BY, bernhard_hillerNajas minor Najas minor Brittle water-nymph Photo: CC BY, Zoltán NagyPotamogeton nodosus Potamogeton nodosus Loddon pondweed Photo: CC BY, Jason GrantGratiola officinalis Gratiola officinalis Gratiole Photo: CC BY, Tatyana SovaThymelaea passerina Thymelaea passerina Annual thymelaea Photo: CC BY, Sam Kieschnick

Other Aristolochia 77 in the reference

Aristolochia acuminata Aristolochia acuminata Indian birthwort Photo: CC BY, Cheongweei GanAristolochia anguicida Aristolochia anguicida Harlequin dutchman's pipe Photo: CC BY, Skjold SøndergaardAristolochia arborea Aristolochia arborea Aristolochiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt StüberAristolochia arcuata Aristolochia arcuata Aristolochiaceae Photo: CC BY, Celso Henrique Varela RiosAristolochia argentina Aristolochia argentina Aristolochiaceae Photo: CC BY, Tomás TamagnoAristolochia australopithecurus Aristolochia australopithecurus Cairns Birdwing Butterfly plant Photo: CC0, Poyt448 Peter WoodardAristolochia baetica Aristolochia baetica Andalusian Dutchman's Pipe Photo: CC0, Alison Westwood Aristolochia bidoupensis Aristolochiaceae Aristolochia bottae Botta's birthwort Aristolochia bracteolata Aristolochia bracteolata Aristolochiaceae Photo: CC0, Jaya Rakesh Aristolochia caulialata Aristolochiaceae Aristolochia cauliflora Aristolochia cauliflora Aristolochiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Danny S. all 78 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Aristolochia clematitis f. undulata; Aristolochia infesta; Aristolochia longa; Aristolochia quadriflora; Aristolochia tenuis. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Aristolochia rotunda Georgi is an older name of this species, not Aristolochia rotunda, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

Registers not checked Wikidata did not answer when this page was built, so the links it gives (POWO, IPNI, World Flora Online, Wikipedia) were not checked; any shown here are kept from an earlier build. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
GBIFWikipedia

The record

Family
Aristolochiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia +29
Wild records
1646 in range · 1240 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 49 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (31 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 7 at a herbarium, 11 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 45.00_5.000, lapse-corrected -180 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata failedasked 2026-10-21query.wikidata.org timeout (batched: Wikidata's query service, 200 GBIF keys)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 189 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…