PASSIFLORACEAE (PASSION FLOWER FAMILY) 287 
PASSION-FLOWER 
Passifléra 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 
near the center; the one-celled 
Fig. 201. — Passion-flower (Passi- 
flora incarnata). Xt}. 
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 
