Virginia Snakeroot

(Aristolochia serpentaria)

 

Color Photograph: © by and courtesy of B. Steury, Department of Botany, Smithsonian Institution

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition.

 

Virginia Snakeroot (Aristolochia serpentaria)

Identification: Flowers green when young, becoming purple-brown when mature. Flower elongate, tubular, bent, and terminating in 3 short lobes. Flower stalk thin, arising from the base of the plant. Leaves elongate, heart-shaped. Plant an upright, herbaceous herb, 8 to 18 inches in height.

Distribution: From Iowa and Texas in the west, eastward to southern New York and Connecticut and southward to Florida.

Habitat: Virginia Snakeroot is a woodland plant.

Flowering period: May to July.

Similar Species: The Aristolochia type flower, the elongate, heart-shaped leaves, and the herbaceous, not vine-like, plant form will identify Virginia Snakeroot.

Virginia Snakeroot (Aristolochia serpentaria)

Similar Species:

The Aristolochia type flower, the elongate, heart-shaped leaves, and the herbaceous, not vine-like, plant form will identify Virginia Snakeroot.

Similar Species

No Similar Species