TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

Passion Flower is intriguing plant

The Green Thumb

ADVERTISEMENT

Dee Dee Jacobson

Published: July 6, 2009

Florida Friendly Plant of the Week:
Passion Flower or Maypop; Passiflora incarnata L.

This plant has always intrigued me.

The first time I saw this perennial vine flowering was at my parents' place in Punta Gorda. The flower looked so primordial to me; I could envision this plant during the prehistoric times as the dinosaurs roamed. There are over 400 species in the genus Passiflora and most of them are tender evergreen tropical vines, but Passiflora incarnata is an exception to this rule.

It is deciduous, which means it will lose its leaves in the winter months and withstand freezes better than most Passiflora spp. The flowers of this passion vine bloom at the axils of each leaf and start from the oldest leaf and works upward to the newest leaf.

That is why it is important that when you prune this vine back you prune some of the canes to the ground because flowers are formed on the new growth only. These complex flowers are 2-3 inches in diameter and are composed of 10 white "tepels," that is sepals and petals that are the same shape and size, arranged in a shallow bowl shape.

Above this is an arrangement of fringe like filaments that are white and purple called a corona. In the center of the flower is a fleshy stigma surrounded by five stamens.

This is the reproductive part of the flower and if you took any of my Master Gardener classes you would know just by this description that this vine is a dicot. If you don't know what a dicot is, well then, I guess you need to take my Master Gardener training. See you in February.

The stems can be smooth or pubescent and are long and trailing with many tendrils to latch onto objects for support. The leaves are glossy and are comprised of 3-5 lobes, 5-6 inches in length and are alternately arranged on the stem.

This is an excellent vine for trellising especially on the south side of your house. Passionflowers love full sun, takes dry soil conditions, and uses low to medium water. Please actually consider not using any soil amendments for this vine because if you enrich the soil too much with compost or manure you will get a lush green vine but very little flowering. So keep it simple. The passion vine is capable of developing amazing root systems to sustain them through droughts and freezes, love high humidity, but need good air circulation like most plants.

Because of their trailing nature, it is best to use this particular vine for a more naturalized garden area which is no problem where I live, but for those of you who need to have neat and orderly formal gardens this particular plant would look out of place. You will often find this vine growing in natural areas along roadsides, edges of fields, and along sides of ditches or other sunny locations. The flower eventually will turn into a fruit called oddly enough a Maypop.

The maypops are the size of a small hen's egg with yellow-green skin but turn orange when it fully matures. The pulp is fleshy with a lot of seeds. It is said that the fruit taste like guava. It is delicious as a snack, dried, juiced, or even used for jams and jellies. What you don't consume, the birds will or should I say what the birds don't eat, you can consume?

If you happen to be playing Trivial Pursuit on Plants you can tell everyone that P. edulis is what gives Hawaiian Punch its distinctive taste.

I would be wrong not to mention that is particular vine is an excellent source for Helliconiam butterflies such as Zebra longwings, fritillaries, and our large, solid orange juilia butterfly. Learn to share the foliage with them. I promise you won't be sorry.

This is definitely a must have for any "Florida Friendly Landscape."

I NEED TO KNOW
My vegetable garden doesn't look very good right now. My tomatoes are wilting and my peppers are getting brown spots all over them. Why?

This is getting too late in the season for vegetables.

In Florida we have two seasons for growing vegetables, warm season and cool season veggies. Aren't you lucky, you can do this twice instead of once in the summer.

Our warm season starts at the end of February or the beginning of March and by using transplants you can ensure a promising vegetable garden until the rains hit in June. Unfortunately for vegetables the rainy season started early this year and we had some late frosts in March.

This combination shortened your growing season by at least two to three weeks. When our heavy rains hit, night and day temperatures rise, and the humidity is here to stay… this can be very tough on veggies and the end result is fungal diseases and a shortened life span for your vegetables. But you can try again in the fall for your cool season garden which would start in the beginning of September and end before our first frost.

For more information on what kind of vegetables to grow at what time of the year, contact the extension office and ask for a Master Gardener. They would be more than happy to help you get the information you need. Contact the Highlands County Extension office at 863-402-6540.

General Information
Scientific name: Passiflora incarnata L.
Pronunciation: pass-ie-FLOOR-AH in-CAR-not-ah
Common Name(s): Passionflower, Maypop, Purple passionflower, True passionflower, Wild Apricot, and Wild passion vine
Family: Passifloraceae
Plant type: herbaceous perennial
USDA Hardiness zones: 6-9
Planting month for zone 9: early spring, late fall, during the rainy season
Origin: Native to Northeast United States
Uses: container gardening, trellis, natural areas, walls and columns, fences, groundcover
Availability: Try: Hickory Hills, Robbins Nursery, Sunshine Nursery, and The Lord's Nursery, Pine Lilly Natives. If not available, try the Internet for seeds.
Height: 25 feet
Spread: vines by tenderals
Plant habit: trailing
Plant density: open
Growth rate: Fast
Texture: medium
pH: acidic soils

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT