Here..it is the only vine that is sold at local nurseries ;o( & is extremely toxic to our native Pipevine Swallowtails but is a good host for Gold Rims/Polydamas Swallowtails, if you have them!
I hate to hear that Lady Margaret is toxic! I was thinking it is a hybrid & wouldn't hurt my Gulf Fritts & planted one this past summer! It is interesting...I have 2 forms of Maypop growing but my GFs only use my Blue Passionvine! I can move cats to the others but the females only lay their eggs on my 2 Passiflora caerulea plants!

Lady Margaret is not toxic. I have raised Gulf Fritillaries on the leaves. So, if you have it, don't rip it out--enjoy the beautiful flowers.

Ditto to what Sandy said. Lady Margaret isn't toxic, but the gulf frits don't lay that many eggs on them, at least they didn't use mine that much. Maybe that's because I have so much P. incarnata and other passis that they prefer here.

Kathy, if you get gold rims/polydamas swallowtails, the A. grandiflora will be fine, but it's reputedly toxic to pipevine swallowtails.
Sherry

Thank you for your response and for the factual information you shared Sherry.

I did not know Lady Margaret was okay. A few short years ago when I first started adding plants to my garden for the butterflies, I read on this very website not to plant this particular plant. I'm sorry for being the source of any misinformation and appreciate it being cleared up.

I'm glad to hear the A. grandiflora was not a waste of money as gardening can be expensive in and of itself. I'm also growing A. tomentosa as well as A. fimbriata; hopefully the butterflies will know what to do. :)

Thank you again.
Kathy

Kathy, I seem to recall Mary in central Florida saying that polydamas and pipevine swallowtails occasionally laid their eggs on the wrong pipevine, but she just raised the mislaid eggs herself and fed them the right leaves. My memory may be wrong here, though, so hopefully she'll see this and chime in. I think the problem was mainly with polydamas swallowtails laying their eggs on the A. tomentosa vines that she wanted to save for the pipevine swallowtails, which can't survive on the A. grandiflora. Polydamas swallowtails can use either.
I'm sorry you got misinformation on this forum about Lady Margaret. There is so much of it on other sites, I'd hoped that this one would be different. That's why we decided that the host plant list on our FAQ section would list only plants that one or more members had actually used to raise a given butterfly, first hand information. Lady Margaret is a hybrid of P. incarnata, a very non-toxic, much used host plant for gulf frits and zebra longwings, and P. coccinea, a toxic variety that they rarely ever even lay their eggs on. So maybe Lady Margaret has a little toxicity, but not enough to kill the caterpillars? I don't know, but it's certainly worth keeping, and the flowers are such a beautiful burgundy color! The flowers are small, especially compared to the very big P. 'Incense' - unfortunately mine couldn't survive our freezes, and didn't come back in spring -
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Sherry

Hello everyone its been a while since ive had time to check out the forum.... and thank god i did!

i just wanted to clear up something.
I had aristolochia grandiflora.... and IT IS NOT a host plant for the polydamas swallowtails. they do lay their eggs on it, however after a few days the caterpillars die!!! I use aristolochia elegans instead, and im dying to get aristolochia gigantea.

aristolochia grandiflora KILLS polydamas swallowtails!!!!

Siam

Glad you can speak from experience, Siam!
I think I was confusing it with A.gigantea... the only pipevine sold by local nurseries that kills Pipevine cats.
Thanks for the correction!