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Magnoliopsida
Passiflora edulis Sims
EOL Text
Vigorous, herbaceous, perennial climber, widely cultivated for its edible fruit. Stems up to 15 m long, striate, with axillary simple tendrils up to 10 cm long. Leaves alternate, up to 13 × 15 cm, more or less deeply 3-lobed, slightly leathery, glossy green or yellow-green above, paler and duller green below, with 2 glands at the apex of the petiole; margin finely toothed; linear stipules present, c. 1 cm long. Flowers solitary, up to 7 cm in diameter. Petals white. Corona with filaments up to 2.5 cm long in 4-5 rows, white, purple at base. Fruit ovoid to spherical, 4-5 cm in diameter, yellow, greenish-yellow or purplish.
Passiflora edulis Sims, Bot. Mag. 45: t. 1989. 1818.
Woody vine, glabrous, attainig 5-10 m in length and climbs by means of axillary tendrils. Stems cylindrical, attaining 2 cm in diameter. Leaves alternate, glabrous, coriaceous, 7-12 × 9-15 cm, deeply trilobate, the lobes oblong or elliptical, the apex acute, the base cordiform, the margins serrate; upper surface dark green, slightly shiny, with the venation yellowish; lower surface pale green, with prominent venation; petioles 3-6 cm long, with a pair of prominent sessile glands in the area where they join the blade; stipules filiform, ca. 5 mm long; tendrils simple. Flowers solitary, pendulous, axillary, subtended by an involucre of 3 ovate bracts, ca. 2 cm long; peduncle 4-6 cm long. Sepals oblong, green, whitish on the inner surface, 3-3.5 cm long; petals oblong, white on the inner surface, 2.5-3 cm long; corona with two series of appendages, with violet bands; gynophore green, ovoid, lobate, 5-7 mm long; stamens 5; ovary ellipsoid, green, the styles slightly reflexed, the stigmas capitate. Fruit ovoid, 5-7 cm long, yellow when ripe, the pericarp coriaceous, thick. Seeds numerous, black, elliptical, foveate, ca. 5 mm long, covered with a juicy orange matrix.
Phenology: Flowering from April to October and fruiting from June to December.
Status: Exotic, cultivated and naturalized, very common.
Selected Specimens Examined: Acevedo-Rdgz., P. 834; 5164; Liogier, A.H. 10258; Stevenson, J.A. 6420.
Leaf: Mixed with "verveine", "pied de poule" and Ricinus communis in an emulsion for liver inflammation.
edulis: edible
Habit: Climber
French Guiana: couzou. Guyana: passion fruit, purple granadilla.
"Notes: Western Ghats & Eastern Ghats, Cultivated, Native of Tropical America"
Passiflora minima Blanco (1837), not Linnaeus (1753).
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Rights holder/Author | eFloras.org Copyright © Missouri Botanical Garden |
Source | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200014476 |
Comments: Native to Brazil.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | NatureServe |
Source | http://explorer.natureserve.org/servlet/NatureServe?searchName=Passiflora+edulis |
Native of southern Brazil, Paraguay to northern Argentina, cultivated and naturalized in several regions of tropical and southern Africa.