Aristolochia grandiflora (Pelican Flower)

Native from Mexico to Ecuador and to Jamaica, this perennial climbing vine can grow more than 30 feet long. It is cultivated for enormous flowers with a long trailing tip. Each flower lasts about two days. On the first day, its rotting-meat odor draws flies into a chamber where hairs temporarily hold them while the female parts receive pollen. On the second day, the flower coats the flies with pollen and releases them as the hairs relax. The foliage feeds tropical swallowtail caterpillars, but the plant is poisonous to humans and livestock. It has naturalized in Western Australia. Photographed in Colombia.