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Passiflora edulis

Common name:	Passion Flower	Family:	Passifloraceae
Author:	Sims.f.	Botanical references:	200
Synonyms:
Known Hazards:	None known
Range:	S. America - Brazil, Paraguay and northern Argentina.
Habitat:	Not known
Edibility Rating (1-5):	2	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	1

Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Maracuja Roxo [E], Passion Fruit [H], Purple Granadilla [H,B,P],
Epithets:	From a Dictionary of Botanical Epithets
	edulis = edible; flora = flowered;
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Violales. Passion-flower family
Other Range Info:	From the Ethnobotany Database
	Madeira
Noxious, Invasive and Injurious Weeds	From USDA PLANTS database, Weeds Australia , DEFRA Injurious Weeds
	Listed as noxious/invasive for: USA Invasive.

Physical Characteristics

An evergreen climber growing to 9m at a fast rate. It is hardy to zone 10 and is frost tender. It is in leaf all year, in flower from July to August. The scented flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Bees. We rate it 2/5 for edibility and 1/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils and requires well-drained soil. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It requires moist soil.

Habitats and Possible Locations

By Walls, By South Wall, By West Wall.

Edible Uses

Fruit; Oil.

Fruit - raw or cooked. An agreeable cooling taste[2, 3, 46, 171], somewhat like an orange with a mixture of acid[4]. The ripe aromatic fruit is allowed to wrinkle and develop sweetness, it is then eaten raw, juiced, made into a syrup or used in sauces, cakes etc[183]. The fruit is about 5cm in diameter[200].
An edible oil is obtained from the seed[183].

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

Stimulant; Tonic.

The pulp of the fruit is stimulant and tonic[240].

Other Uses

None known

Cultivation details

Requires a well-drained soil with plenty of moisture in the growing season, otherwise it is not fussy[1, 3].
Plants are not very frost tolerant and are best grown in a greenhouse[3]. However, the roots are somewhat hardier and can survive the winter outdoors in many areas of Britain if the soil is prevented from freezing[88]. If plants are cut down to the ground by frost they can regenerate from the base[200]. There is also the possibility of growing plants on rootstocks of P. caerulea which might make them hardier[200].
This species is often cultivated in warmer climes than Britain for its edible fruit, there are some named varieties[46, 183]. The fruit can be freely produced in Britain in hot summers[166].
Roots of outdoor grown plants should be restricted to encourage fruiting[1].
Any pruning is best carried out in the spring[219].
If fruit is required it is best to hand pollinate, using pollen from a flower that has been open for 12 hours to pollinate a newly opened flower before midday[88, 200]. The flowers open in sunny weather and do not open on dull cloudy days[219]. The flowers have the scent of heliotropes[245].
A climbing plant, attaching itself to other plants by means of tendrils that are produced at the leaf axils.
Plants in this genus are notably resistant to honey fungus[200].

Propagation

Pre-soak the seed for 12 hours in warm water and then sow late winter or early spring in a warm greenhouse. If sown in January and grown on fast it can flower and fruit in its first year[88]. The seed germinates in 1 - 12 months at 20°c. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots when they are large enough to handle. It you are intending to grow the plants outdoors, it is probably best to keep them in the greenhouse for their first winter and plant them out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts. Mulch the roots well in late autumn to protect them from the cold.
Cuttings of young shoots, 15cm with a heel, in spring[1].
Leaf bud cuttings in spring.
Cuttings of fully mature wood in early summer. Takes 3 months. High percentage[3].

Scent

Flowers: Fresh: The flowers have the scent of heliotropes[245].

Cultivars

'': No entries have been made for this species as yet.

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

PFAF Web Pages

This plant is mentioned in the following web pages

Web References

Details of Medicinal Uses, Habitats, etc. in M. Grieve A Modern Herbal (1931) [4]
[H] Details of Scandanavian and European Common names in Henriette's names database
[E] Ethnobotany Data (common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.
[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[PHARM] Phytochemical Data (common names, uses, countries) from Dr Duke's Phytochemical Database.
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

References for the family Passifloraceae.

To be included in the Flora of China.

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[1] F. Chittendon. RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 Oxford University Press 1951
Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaces in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [200]).

[2] Hedrick. U. P. Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. Dover Publications 1972 ISBN 0-486-20459-6
Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.

[3] Simmons. A. E. Growing Unusual Fruit. David and Charles 1972 ISBN 0-7153-5531-7
A very readable book with information on about 100 species that can be grown in Britain (some in greenhouses) and details on how to grow and use them.

[4] Grieve. A Modern Herbal. Penguin 1984 ISBN 0-14-046-440-9
Not so modern (1930's?) but lots of information, mainly temperate plants.

[46] Uphof. J. C. Th. Dictionary of Economic Plants. Weinheim 1959
An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.

[88] RHS. The Garden. Volume 112. Royal Horticultural Society 1987
Snippets of information from the magazine of the RHS. In particular, there are articles on plants that are resistant to honey fungus, oriental vegetables, Cimicifuga spp, Passiflora species and Cucurbits.

[166] Taylor. J. The Milder Garden. Dent 1990
A good book on plants that you didn't know could be grown outdoors in Britain.

[171] Hill. A. F. Economic Botany. The Maple Press 1952
Not very comprehensive, but it is quite readable and goes into some a bit of detail about the plants it does cover.

[183] Facciola. S. Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications 1990 ISBN 0-9628087-0-9
Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[219] Grey-Wilson. C. & Matthews. V. Gardening on Walls Collins 1983 ISBN 0-00-219220-0
A nice little book about plants for growing against walls and a small section on plants that can grow in walls.

[240] Chopra. R. N., Nayar. S. L. and Chopra. I. C. Glossary of Indian Medicinal Plants (Including the Supplement). Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi. 1986
Very terse details of medicinal uses of plants with a wide range of references and details of research into the plants chemistry. Not for the casual reader.

[245] Genders. R. Scented Flora of the World. Robert Hale. London. 1994 ISBN 0-7090-5440-8
An excellent, comprehensive book on scented plants giving a few other plant uses and brief cultivation details. There are no illustrations.

Readers Comments

Passiflora species

Rich (michael@thewitchshaven.com) Wed Oct 10 12:38:19 2001

1. Passiflora, the host plants of Heliconius butterflies contains:

a. toxic alkaloids (strychnine, caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, and morphine are all alkaloids which we extract from plants for pharmaceutical, recreational and agricultural uses. Nicotine sulfate is a potent pesticide) and

b. cyanogenic glycosides (These compounds are essentially sugars attached to a CN or cyanide group . As glycosides, these compounds are non-toxic and contained in an intracellular compartment. A specific glycosidase enzyme resides in a separate compartment. When a herbivore munches on green tissues of a passion vine, the enzyme is brought into contact with the glycoside and cyanide is released.

Information from

Link: Texas University Lecture Notes

Cross references: Plants: Passiflora species. Genera: Passiflora.

Passiflora species

Rich (michael@thewitchshaven.com) Wed Oct 10 12:48:05 2001

The above comment seems to refer to the leaves and not the flowers. Anyone know more on this subject?

Cheers to Linda King (tlady@clara.co.uk) for this info

Another link is

Link: University of Texas newsletter

Cross references: Plants: Passiflora species. Genera: Passiflora.

Main Search Page

Bibliography

Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
WEB search engine by Rich Morris - Home Page- Contact Info
Blagdon Cross, Ashwater, Beaworthy, Devon, EX21 5DF, UK.
Website: www.pfaf.org Phone: 0845 458 4719/_44(0) 1208 872963

This page (UK) http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/cgi-bin/pfaf/arr_html?Passiflora+edulis
This page (US) http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/arr_html?Passiflora+edulis

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We make no claims of magical effects or supernatural powers for any item in this catalog. In spite of legendary attributes or occult and craft tradition, such items are offered as curios only and beliefs concerning their magical effectiveness are related only for historical interest.