As of APG IV (2016), the former families Hydnoraceae and Lactoridaceae are included, because exclusion would make Aristolochiaceae in the traditional sense paraphyletic.

[4] Four assemblages can be distinguished in the genus-level cladogram of Aristolochiaceae: Asarum L. 1753 Saruma Oliver 1889[5] Lactoris Philippi 1865 Aristolochia L. 1753 Thottea Rottboell 1783[6] Hydnora Thunberg 1775 Prosopanche de Bary 1868 Many members of Aristolochia and some of Asarum contain the toxin aristolochic acid, which discourages herbivores and is known to be carcinogenic in rats.

As compared to the chloroplast genome of its closest photosynthetic relatives, the plastome of Hydnora visseri shows extreme reduction in both size (ca.

The earliest records of the family are the fossil seeds of †Aristospermum huberi and †Siratospermum mauldinense from the Early Cretaceous of Portugal and Virginia, United States.

[11] Fossil leaf remains of †Aristolochia austriaca have been described from Late Miocene sediments of the Pellendorf site at the Vienna Basin in Austria.