A woody vine to over 10 m with support. Alternate palmately five-lobed leaves (sometimes three, seven or nine lobes) up to 10 cm, with a 5–10 cm tendril at each leaf base. Flowers about 10 cm across, the five sepals and five petals alike and whitish, surmounted by a corona of blue or violet filaments banded blue, white, yellow and brown, then five greenish-yellow stamens and three purple stigmas; fragrant. An oval orange-yellow berry 6 cm long with 10–35 seeds. Hardier than other passion flowers.
Habitat
Fences, pergolas, walls and gardens, grown in tropical landscapes and temperate gardens alike; invasive in some places.
Distribution
Native to South America and introduced worldwide; grown as an ornamental vine in China and hardy outdoors in the Yangtze basin, grown in Japan (tokeisō), grown in Singapore.
Season and behaviour
June to October, peaking in temperate summer; each flower lasts a day or two.
Photography tips
These are the FilmAnalysis editors' notes, not content from the sources.
The clock-face flower straight down, with a macro and small aperture so corona, stamens and stigmas are all sharp; the blue filaments are truest in soft light and bleach in sun. The flower faces the light, so follow its gaze. The orange-yellow fruit and palmate leaves are the subject after flowering.
Photographic styles
The head-on graphic of a clock face; macro of blue and white bands.
Similar species
Passion fruit, Passiflora edulis (purple-and-white corona, three-lobed leaves, purple or yellow fruit); red passion flower (red); blue passion flower is this species' Chinese name too.
Related badge
None yet. No validated photo recognition exists for this species, so no badge is tied to it: a name in the encyclopedia is not evidence in a photograph.
The illustration is original FilmAnalysis artwork. The photograph is from Wikimedia Commons; its licence and author are under it.
Why it is listed: this species comes from the Flower checklist (GBIF backbone and Wikidata verified). Names follow the GBIF backbone and Wikidata; the facts follow the sources below; photo recognition is not offered.
