[3] The plant grows along riparian streambank areas, in chaparral, oak woodland, and mixed evergreen forest habitats.

[3] The plant produces large, green-to-pale-brown, curving pipe-shaped flowers, with purple veins and a yellow-to-red lining.

[7] Like the other members of the family Aristolochiaceae, A. californica is highly toxic, producing a group of secondary metabolites known as aristolochic acids.

[10] The reasoning for this is that aristolochic acids act as a carcinogen and a nephrotoxin, inducing urothelial cancers and kidney failure.

The red-spotted black caterpillars consume the leaves of the plants, and then use the flowers as a secure, enclosed place to undergo metamorphosis.

It has been found that these clutches of caterpillars take part in aggregative feeding as to manipulate the type and/or size of the plant's induced defense in response to herbivory.