Dutchman’s Pipevine – An Insect Favorite?

Your first impression of the dutchman’s pipevine flower might be that it looks somewhat… carnivorous. Perhaps like a pitcher plant? Well, that association isn’t all that off base!

Pollination for this species does involve trapping an insect inside the body of its flower, but only temporarily. The dutchman’s pipevine derives its nutrition, including nitrogen and other important minerals and compounds, entirely via photosynthesis, unlike carnivorous plants, which get some nutrition from photosynthesis, but also get some from the insects they consume. Carnivorous plants, like the sundew, bladderwort, and pitcher plants that are native to Ohio, live in nutrient-poor soil and could not subsist without supplemental nutrition from trapped insects. In dutchman’s pipevine, there is no need to permanently trap an insect, and in fact, this would adversely affect the plant; an insect that is trapped and dies cannot pollinate another flower.

So what DOES happen inside the flower? When blooming, the flowers emit a scent likened to rotting flesh – this attracts insects like gnats and flies, who climb down into the tube of the flower in search of the source, all the while becoming coated in pollen. Numerous small hairs inside the tube prevent the insect from leaving until the following day, when the hairs drop and the flower, now pollinated and no longer needing to attract insects, discontinues emitting its fragrance. The insect is free to leave and do it all over again inside another flower.

But, it’s not just flies and gnats that are tangled up in the dutchman’s pipevine’s tendrils! The pipevine swallowtail butterfly lays its eggs (below) on this plant.

After hatching, the miniscule caterpillars stick together, adhering to the “safety in numbers” principle.

Several weeks later, they’ve reached the size of my pinkie finger and will leave their hostplant to pupate in a chrysalis for 10-20 days. When they emerge, they are a gorgeous black and metallic blue adult butterfly.

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