Passion Flower

Where it grows

Passiflora is a genus of around five hundred species, mostly Central and South American. P. caerulea, the blue passion flower, is hardy enough to grow against sheltered walls in southern England and across the Mediterranean; P. edulis is the commercially grown passion fruit; P. incarnata is the cold-hardy North American maypop.

How to recognise it

A vigorous tendril-climbing vine with deeply lobed palmate leaves. The unmistakable flower has ten white tepals surrounding a fringe-like blue and white corona, above which sits a central column of five stamens and a three-armed stigma. The arrangement is so distinctive that no other flower resembles it.

Garden & cultural uses

Sixteenth-century Spanish missionaries in South America used the passion flower as a teaching aid: the ten tepals were ten apostles (excluding Judas and Peter), the corona was the crown of thorns, the three stigmas the nails, the five stamens the five wounds. The fruit was the believer’s reward.

In herbalism

Passion flower preparations from P. incarnata are listed in European pharmacopoeias as a mild anxiolytic; the dried herb is included in many over-the-counter sleep teas.