I've had an Aristolochia watsonii plant in a pot with one of my cacti for about 12 years now. I originally dug it up from my yard in Tucson when I lived there and it has done wonderfully ever since. It flowers and sets fruit every year, but I thought that the seeds were non-viable due to my inability to get them to germinate. Well, just today I found a seedling in my kids' sandbox! The area where I found it is just a few feet from the parent plant and a seed must have been washed in when I was watering. I dug it up, (it already had a little "tuber"), and put it in a new terra cotta pot.

My thought is that while my kids were playing in the sandbox they must have inadvertantly scarified the seed with the coarse sand. Of course, I have no way of knowing if the seed was from this year's fruits or if it had been lying dormant for a year or two. But I do know that the seedling is from this year because I'm continually pulling spurge and grasses from the sandbox and I would have noticed it during one of these earlier weedings.

Anyway, now that I know that the plant produces viable seed I would like to offer some in trade to anyone that might be interested. I have only a few dozen seeds, (collected today), so I would have to limit the number of trades to four at this time, (ten seeds to each individual). What I'm currently interest in is:

Aristolochias other than A. gigantea or A. californica

Petrea volubilis - Queens Wreath

Antigonon leptopus - another Queens Wreath, (the bright pink variety only, please)

Species Morning Glories

If I don't get any nibbles I would be willing to send 10 seeds for a S.A.S.E.

A.watsonii seedling

A. watsonii seeds

Below is a link that gives more information about my Aristolochia, (written by Mark Dimmitt, Plant Curator of the Arizona/Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson). It's got some interesting, (and disgusting), information about the plant's pollination. I'm wondering if something else pollinates the plant here in the Sacramento area... As I mentioned I'm not sure what you'd have to do to get germination, but I'm guessing scarification, stratification and/or soaking overnite might be good places to start.

Thanks,

Mike

Fantastic! Please send me an email with your address and I'll get them out to you...

Thanks,

Mike

If you still have any of the aristolochia watsonii seeds to trade, I have aristolochia clematitis, tagala, baetica, and maxima seeds that were all purchased this year. If you are interested send me your address and I'll send mine.
Happy gardening,
Dave.

Sorry, I was out of town for a while. I'll respond to your email a little later this afternoon...

Mboston,

I wouldn't worry too much about the pollinators; you probably have them or not already. I doubt that having a few of these Aristolochias around would draw in hoards of the blood-suckers. These are fairly small plants, however. I can't imagine that they could support more than a few caterpillars each. If you're still interested, please drop me an email...

Thanks,

Mike