Aristolochia socorroensis

Aristolochia socorroensis is a perennial plant that grows herbaceous stems that trail along the ground without rooting. Its leaves are hastate, shaped like an arrow head with the two lobes at the base pointing outward. The tip of the leaf is strongly pointed while the base is deeply indented like the top of a heart shape while the leaf edges are smooth.{{sfn|Pfeifer|1970|p=82}} Each leaf measures from 3 to 5 centimeters long and 1.5 to 4 cm in width.{{sfn|Santana-Michel|Cuevas Guzmán|2013|p=21}} They are green in color and strigulose, covered in short, stiff hairs that lay down on the surface of the leaf. Their undersides are more pale with short, stiff hairs that stand up.{{sfn|Pfeifer|1970|pp=82–83}} They are attached to the plant by petioles, short leaf stems 1 to 1.5 cm long.{{sfn|Santana-Michel|Cuevas Guzmán|2013|p=21}}

Each flower is solitary and found in the {{plantgloss|leaf axils}}, just above the joint where the petiole attaches to the main stem. The flower is a narrow tube coming to a drawn out point that is green and covered in brown speckles on the inside.{{sfn|Pfeifer|1970|p=83}} The tube of the flower is straight and just 6 to 8 millimeters long and 1.5 mm in diameter.{{sfn|Santana-Michel|Cuevas Guzmán|2013|p=21}} The flowers have five stigmas and five anthers within the tube of the flower.{{sfn|Pfeifer|1970|p=83}}

The fruit is a sausage shaped capsule 2.75 cm long and 1.75 cm wide and five internal cells.{{sfn|Pfeifer|1970|p=83}}{{sfn|Levin|Moran|1989|p=24}} The numerous seeds are black, triangular, about 5 mm wide, but just 1 mm thick.{{sfn|Pfeifer|1970|p=83}}

Aristolochia socorroensis was named and scientifically described by Howard William Pfeifer in 1970. It is classified in the genus Aristolochia in family Aristolochiaceae. It has no botanical synonyms, subspecies, or varieties.{{sfn|POWO 2025}} Though collected by previous expeditions to the island as early as 1890 it had not been recognized as a species and been recorded as Aristolochia brevipies, a mainland Mexican species.{{sfn|Levin|Moran|1989|p=26}}

This species is endemic to Socorro Island in the Pacific Ocean to the west of Mexico.{{sfn|Levin|Moran|1989|p=18}} They have been observed at elevations from 14 to 800 meters on the island.{{sfn|Santana-Michel|Cuevas Guzmán|2013|p=24}}{{sfn|Levin|Moran|1989|p=26}}

It grows in thickets of the shrub Croton masonii, along sea bluffs, and upper beaches.{{sfn|Santana-Michel|Cuevas Guzmán|2013|p=24}}{{sfn|Levin|Moran|1989|p=26}}

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;Books

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• {{Cite book |last1=Levin |first1=Geoffrey Arthur |last2=Moran |first2=Reid |author-link2=Reid Venable Moran |date=1989 |title=The Vascular Flora of Isla Socorro, Mexico |url=https://brccapi.sdnhm.org/files/5313/6519/0922/Mems16_1989_Levin__Moran.pdf |series=Memoirs of the San Diego Society of Natural History, 16 |language=en |location=San Diego, California |publisher=San Diego Society of Natural History |oclc=20433027 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250120060043/https://brccapi.sdnhm.org/files/5313/6519/0922/Mems16_1989_Levin__Moran.pdf |archive-date=20 January 2025 |access-date=20 January 2025}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Pfeifer |first1=Howard William |date=1970 |title=A Taxonomic Revision of the Pentandrous Species of Aristolochia |url=https://archive.org/details/taxonomicrevisio0000pfei/page/82 |series=University of Connecticut publications |language=en, la |edition= |location=Storrs, Connecticut |publisher=University of Connecticut |oclc=206928 |access-date=18 January 2025}}

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;Journals

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• {{cite journal |last1=Santana-Michel |first1=Francisco |last2=Cuevas Guzmán |first2=Ramón |date=2013 |title=Diversidad y distribución de Aristolochia (Aristolochiaceae) en el estado de Colima, México |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268523172_Diversidad_y_distribucion_de_Aristolochia_Aristolochiaceae_en_el_estado_de_Colima_Mexico |trans-title=Diversity and distribution of Aristolochia (Aristolochiaceae) in the state of Colima, Mexico |journal=Ibugana: Boletín del Instituto de Botánica |trans-journal=Ibugana: Bulletin of the Institute of Botany |language=es |volume=5 |pages=95–132 |issn=0187-7054 |access-date=18 January 2025}}

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;Web sources

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• {{cite POWO |id=234074-1 |title=Aristolochia socorroensis Pfeifer |access-date=18 January 2025 |ref={{sfnref|POWO 2025}}}}

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{{Taxonbar|from=Q15465376}}

socorroensis

Category:Endemic flora of the Revillagigedo Islands