I planted this passionfruit vine just over six months ago. Mainly to cover an ugly fence, but then there was the added bonus of having the fruit too. While living in the Blue Mountains many years ago, we did try the yellow banana shaped passionfruit, but that one only gave us lots of vine and flowers, but never fruit. So you imagine my surprise when only a few months goes by, and we have this already.
The very first fruit ripened and fell to the ground, unbruised and ready to eat. As you can see above, there are many more to come, and that picture only shows about 1/8 of the vine. The neighbours on the other side of the fence are thrilled too.
Cut in half to reveal it's fleshy, sweet and tarty pulp.
I Googled passionfruit to find some history of the plant and it is THANKS to New Zealand Passionfruit Growers Association for providing it.
The very first fruit ripened and fell to the ground, unbruised and ready to eat. As you can see above, there are many more to come, and that picture only shows about 1/8 of the vine. The neighbours on the other side of the fence are thrilled too.
Cut in half to reveal it's fleshy, sweet and tarty pulp.
I Googled passionfruit to find some history of the plant and it is THANKS to New Zealand Passionfruit Growers Association for providing it.The purple passionfruit (Passiflora edulis) is a native of the rainforest margins in the Amazon region of Brazil and perhaps also of Paraguay and northern Argentina. It has adapted to the cooler sub-tropics and the high altitude tropics.
There are many other passiflora species spread widely around the globe and about 50 species are native to New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific and South East Asia.
There are many other passiflora species spread widely around the globe and about 50 species are native to New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific and South East Asia.
The flower...
Passionfruit acquired its name from Spanish missionaries who thought parts of the plant's flower resembled different religious symbols. The Jesuit missionaries who accompanied the Conquistadors to South America saw in its striking flower a means of illustrating the Crucifixion; the 10 petals and sepals represented the apostles, the crown of thorns was seen in the filaments, the five anthers represent the five wounds, the three stigmas were allied with the nails used to pierce the hands and feet of Jesus and the vine's tendrils were equated with the whips.
Flower image courtesy of Google images.
8 comments:
Very interesting, informative post.
And that fruit looks delicious! Thanks!
I grow the yellow variety and have been looking for a red one. When I have too many I just scoop them out and freeze them. They are sooo delicious. I have made a mousse and it was to die for.
What a gorgeous flower and what interesting history. Lovely lovely fruit. A great all rounder. How lucky you are being able to grow it. I wonder if I could grow it in my conservatory.
xxx
This is the coolest vine EVER!!! I have never seen one! The fruit is just gorgeous! We nake passionfruit wine here, and love it, but from forzen juice concentrate...it would be wonderful to make it from fresh fruit!
yer the passion fruit looks great but i just brought a the same one 11/10/09 Sunday (last week) so how long will it take to grow its already around 15-20 cm long.
Hi Sally, gorgeous pic of your passionfruit. Is your a grafted or came from seed? I have one in a pot now and it came from seed but I bought it from the nursery. It almost was gone as it was chewed on by mysterious bugs but now it is fine.
I am planning to trellis it right in front of my shed where the soil seems good. Was googling and found your site.
Do you know why the passionfruit banana did not give you fruits, but only flowers and leaves? I hope mine wouldnt be like this.
Often if you are only getting flowers and no fruit it is because you don't have a self-pollinating variety of passionfruit. You would need to have two or three separate plants alonside each other so that the flowers can be cross-pollinated. The Panama Red is a self-pollinating hybrid so you can get masses of fruit from one plant.
Huge fan of passion fruit plant. That shot of the passion fruit made my mouth water! I really love the complex looking flowers of the passion fruit, really beautiful Its such a great fast growing plant to cover an ugly fence and also get tasty fruits from. I want to taste this passion fruit wine Julie on of the commenters makes.
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