PASSIFLORACEAE (PASSION FLOWER FAMILY) 



287 



PASSION-FLOWER 

 Passiflora incarnata, L. 



Other English names: Passion-vine, May-pop. 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom: May to August. 



Seed-time: July to October. 



Range: Virginia to Missouri, southward to Florida and Texas. 



Habitat : Dry soil ; troublesome in cultivated crops ; waste places. 



A handsome climbing vine, with curious and beautiful flowers and 

 edible fruits. Stem smooth, or sometimes finely hairy at the 

 growing tips and twigs, ten to 

 thirty feet in length, the lower 

 and older part becoming some- 

 what angled and ridged, climbing 

 by means of long, coiling, axillary 

 tendrils. Leaves alternate, three 

 to five inches broad, usually 

 smooth, heart-shaped at base 

 and deeply three-lobed, the lobes 

 pointed and sharply toothed, the 

 slender petiole bearing two glands 

 near the base of the blade. 

 Flowers solitary, axillary, about 

 two inches broad, showy, lifted on 

 jointed pedicels longer than the 

 leaf-stalks, and bearing three leaf- 

 like involucral bracts just below 

 the flower; sepals five, united 

 at base; five large white petals 

 inserted on the throat of the 

 calyx and crowned with triple 

 rows of long fringes which are 

 pale purple with a lighter band FlG - 2 l- ~ Passion-flower (Passi- 



flora incarnata). X J. 

 near the center; the one-celled 



ovary is lifted on a stipe, or foot-stalk, subtended by the 

 five stamens and bears at its top three club-shaped stigmas. 

 Fruit ovoid, about two inches long, smooth, yellow, pulpy, the 



