sect. Diplolobus

The sect. Diplolobus represents the Old World - Aristolochia distributed all across Southern Europe, Africa and Asia as far as to Australia, Fiji, Vanuatu and surrounding islands.

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The section consists of 2 main clades,

 

subsect. Aristolochia

 

and

 

subsect. Podanthemum.

 

 

Despite offering various extreme habitats and niches the subsect. Aristolochia apparently managed to conquer the whole Old World (except for southern Africa) with an outstanding diversity hotspot especially in Turkey and the Near East.

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However, Podanthemum subsect. species are more restricted in their distribution range. More common throughout Africa there's not a single species of this subsection to be found in Europe and Near East.

 

They turn up in Pakistan again and diversify extremely towards the Malaysian Peninsula and especially Indonesia & The Philippines.

More than a dozen species have been described from there as new to science in the past 2 decades and at least the same number can still be expected possibly.

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Podanthemum subsect. species can easily be distinguished from subsect. Aristolochia species by the presence of a more or less short stipe between the utricle and the ovary.

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