I have never been fond of this flower. It is “different” looking. It reminds me of a large spider for some reason. But the taste of the fruit is something else. Passiflora or Passion Flower is a vine or shrub. It is from the Passifloraceae family of plants. Passiflora is a herbaceous plant. It is evergreen. Passiflora is native to Central America and Mexico as well as Southeast Asia and Oceania. Passiflora is also known as Maypops.
Passiflora is a fast grower. It can cover a fence pretty fast. It has a lot of tendrils. Tendrils help this plant to climb easily, especially when the plant gets established.
Passiflora flowers from June to November. The flowers are creamy-white and blue. They also grow Passiflora in greenhouses and in pots. Passiflora flowers more if the roots are restricted. But they don’t grow as tall in containers.
How to grow Passiflora:
Grow it in full sun. Provide some shelter. Passiflora thrives in moderately fertile, well-drained soil. Passiflora is not fussy about the type of soil, both alkaline and acid soils are fine. Sheltering these plants helps them stay protected in the winter since, after all, they are tropical plants. Too much sun can scorch the leaves. Trim dried or scorched leaves in early spring.
Passiflora plants can be prone to aphids, mealybug, or whitefly as well as Cucumber mosaic virus.
Propagation of Passiflora:
Though you can propagate Passiflora from seeds, it is not very easy. It can take longer to establish. If you plan to collect the seeds then let the fruit ferment. This is a natural process it has to go through in order to protect the seeds from any disease. Simply mash the fruit and let it dry. This could take 10 days or two weeks. After this, you should wash the seeds and separate it from any flesh left from the fruit. Then let the seed dry. When you are ready to plant the seeds you should put them in hot water overnight. This softens them before planting.
It is better to propagate the Passion Fruit plant by cuttings in early spring. You can do cuttings from new growth in place in compost. Propagation can also be done from the layering method.
Trim the plant to shape it. Prune after the flowers are gone. Passiflora grows from 2m to 10m (7 to 30 ft) high. Water Passiflora well in the growing season and less when it is dormant. Passiflora edulis is the species well-known for its fruit, passion fruit. The Passiflora edulis fruit is almost egg-shaped and is purple, fruit of the other species could be orange or yellow in color.
Passiflora fruit or passion fruit:
Passion fruit is very tasty. They make juice and drinks, pastries, jams, and ice cream with passion fruit. Make sure to only eat ripe fruits, not only for flavor but also because unripened seeds of passion fruit could cause stomach problems. Ripened fruit seeds are edible. And speaking of seeds passion fruit has a lot of seeds. The fruit itself is rich in vitamins A and C, and fiber. It also has iron and potassium. It contains carotenoids and polyphenols like other tropical fruits such as pineapple, lychee, banana, or papaya.