Photo by Rick Gush
Here is one of the many passionflowers growing gaga around Italy .
I ’ve always been surprised that the nursery and landscape industry does n’t offer more passionflower vines for cut-rate sale . The vine grow like mourning band and are in reality considered an invasivepestin some areas . For domicile gardeners , passionflower vines can be used to bring forth a prompt fencing and wall covering intent that includes the exotic blossom and tasty fruits .
In Liguria , Italy , where I live , passionflower is a common weed . I see far more of these as tempestuous plants than as vines cultivate in garden . When my wife and I go hike around in the woods during the summertime , I often line up batches of furious passion yield to munch on . Occasionally , I see passion fruits for sale by the local farmers in the veg market place business district . scores of mass here call Passion of Christ fruitsgranadillas , which mean “ short pomegranates ” in Spanish because the germ inside the fruits resemble pomegranate seed .
There are a bit of passionflower native to the United States ; many aboriginal American cultures used these fruit for food , potable and medicines . Most passionflower seem to prefer coastal arena or tropical zones , but some of the species do grow as perennial in evenhandedly cold-blooded climates . The purple passionflower vine , Passiflora incarnata , the state flower of Tennessee , is one of the most cold - kind coinage . The photo here is the Passiflora caerulea , which is called the blue passion flower . This is the species that is essentially wild in Liguria , but I do n’t think it is native . The Catholic Church had some influence in the naming of the plant life ; the symbology concerns the whip , nail , crown of thorns and Holy Grail that are said to be represent in the various flower parts .
The ecology of the passionflower is interestingly complex . The flowers draw some of the largestbeesand insects for pollination , and the ambrosia feeds a lot of dissimilar butterfly . The vines often secrete nectar on parts of the stem to attract ants that help combat exuberant butterfly stroke nut and larvae . Some metal money uprise nodules that resemble butterfly stroke eggs , and therefore confuse the butterfly into believe that that flower is not a practiced location to site more egg . A few of the passionflower species are protocarnivorous , meaning that they trap and kill insects , but do not digest them .
For those gardeners who wish to dig a little deeper and plant further than the usual purple - flowered Passiflora edulis offer for sale at retail nurseries , there is a whole rainbow of different flower type to choose from , include reds , oranges , pink and whites . Passionflowers are easily as exotic as any orchid , but somehow they do n’t quite get the same deference . Here ’s a link to some gracious passionflowerphotographs .
The parking area at my studio has a volunteer passionflower vine I ’ve trained to grow along the fence . It ’s already hide the majority of the fence and it brings a skillful look to the narrow planting . There are blossom all over the vine , and I can see than some of them have been fertilized and are developing into fruits . pleasant-tasting ! I ca n’t hold off .
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