Passion Fruits & Passion Flowers

Here's something to ignite your passion in gardening!

After viewing pictures of the Scarlett Passiflora Coccinea on my latest Wordless Wednesday post, are you ready for more passion???? And so, the tale continues here ........

This is Passion fruit Passiflora edulis flower.

We get our commercially available pasison fruits from this plant. This perennial evergreen is native to tropical America. It is a vigourous climbing woody vine that clings by tendrils to any structure for support. It can grow up to 20 ft tall, very invasive and needs regular prunning. It can live 5-7 years.

The flowers which are fragrant and usually pollinated by carpenter bees. If necessary, you may use hand pollination method too.

The passion in the name
I always thought that "passion" as in passion flowers and passion fruits refers to romance and affection. However, according to facts from wikipedia, it refers to the passion of Jesus Christ. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish Christian missionaries adopted the unique physical structures of this plant, particularly the numbers of its various flower parts, as symbols of the last days of Jesus Christ and especially the Crucifixion. For more information, please read here.

The passion fruit will turn from green to purple when riped.

The leaves, flowers and stems of the Passiflora edulis has medicinal uses e.g. in lowering blood pressure, treatment of asthma, insomnia and menopausal problems.

The passion fruit is available commercially, either fresh or canned. Examples are passion fruit juice, syrup, jam, mousse, cheesecake flavouring and other desserts. Fresh passion fruit is high in vitamin A, potassium and dietary fiber. Passion fruit juice is a good source of vitamin C.

Here is another type of passion flower, the fragrant passion flower Passiflora laurifolia.
Common names for its fruit : bell apple, yellow granadilla, golden bellapple, water lemon
Malay name: Buah susu

During my first visit on a conducted garden tour at The Secret Garden of 1-Utama, we, the visiting public, were constantly distracted by the whiff of strong heavenly scent that permeated the air around us. The perfume was so distinctly captivating that we just had to interrupt the speaker and asked about its origin. So we found out that it was the fragrant passiflora laurifolia! This is the plant I want in my garden. Since then, I have been dreaming of this passion flower every night.

The flowers are very beautiful and extremely fragrant. This plant produces medium sized, oval shaped fruits, usually with a deep orange skin and white-yellow, juicy pulp. The water lemon has a mild taste, without the tartness of the common passion fruit. A not widely known, and very underrated passion fruit. For more information, please visit Tradewindsfruit.com here.

Now, after reading my post, which passion flower plant would you like to grow in your garden?

a) The scarlett Passiflora cocchinea for the striking red colour

b) The Passiflora edulis for the passion fruit

c) The Passiflora laurifolia for the strong fragrance

Pictures taken by Autumn Belle at The Secret Garden of 1-Utama.
Honorable mention:
Some sources of information are obtained from Wikipedia and Tradewindsfruit.com
Grateful thanks to Dr. Francis Ng, of the Secret Garden of 1-Utama.

This is my entry for Blooming Friday. The theme today is ice crystals. Maybe you can imagine iced passion fruit juice instead. My grateful thanks to Katarina at Roses and Stuff for hosting Blooming Friday. To see what others have posted or to participate, click here.

This is also my first entry for Fertilizer Friday. My grateful thanks to Tootsie at Tootsie Time for hosting Fertilizer Friday. To see what others have posted or to participate, visit here.

This is my entry for Today's Flowers #62. To view more flowers today and to participate, visit here.

Finally, I wish to end here with a picture of this kolam depicting a pair of beautiful peacocks. This photograph was taken at the AON Shopping Centre, Bandar Bukit Tinggi, Klang. Kolams are a form of Indian art paintings drawn on the ground at entrances using coloured rice grains or rice powder. It is said to welcome prosperity into the homes or buildings.

I would like to wish all my friends around the world who are celebrating Deepavali or Diwali,
the Festival of Lights on this Saturday, October 17th, 2009,

A VERY HAPPY DEEPAVALI !

For more photos about Deepavali Festival at Little India, Klang, Malaysia,
please visit my city daily photo blog here

And to others, Happy Holidays and have a nice weekend.