Blue Passion Flower Vine / Blue Crown passionflower / Passiflora caerulea in the NE Florida Landscape
Passiflora caerulea… Whats in a name?
( Pass-siff-FLOR-ruh kah-eh-ru-LEH-a or see-ROO-lee-uh depending on how latin you want to be I guess??? the internet seems to give both pronunciations by seemingly educated sources so I remain lost on how to correctly say this name! ) Passiflora means ‘passion flower’ and caerulea means ‘quara’ and refers to the bright blue color of the filaments on this flower. Not that that will ever get anywhere, sometimes its just fun to see the breakdown 🙂
The blue passion flower will forever have a place in my heart simply because after being planted into my home garden it attracted my first zebra longwings to my garden. I LOVE it when a new species shows up! I think it had more to do with the fact that it attached itself to a nearby magnolia and climbed up it in the shade but it still gets all the credit to my mind. Blue caerulea vines are utilized by zebra longwings, gulf Frittilary and Julia butterflies as larval host plants for their caterpillar babies so you will often see them fluttering about laying eggs on the leaves.
Passionflower vines are short lived perennials that you can expect to live a few seasons in the landscape.
Origins of Blue Passionflower Vine / Passiflora caerulea:
The Passiflora genus is considered pan-tropical, it is distributed among the tropical regions of the planet and consists of more than 500 species with most found in South America, eastern Asia, southern Asia, and New Guinea and some found in our very own SE United States like our native passiflora incarnata. They are members of the family passifloraceae and may be a vine, shrub, or herbaceous plant.
The beautiful blue caerulea passion flower vine is that is native to South America.
It is cold hardy to as low as 5 ° F and can be planted in garden zones 7-11.
Blooms and Fruit of Blue Passionflower Vine Flower Vine / Passiflora caerulea :
Fragrant flowers consist of 5 sepals, 5 petals both are a barely greenish tinged white color. The bright purple blue flat (not curly) filaments are the star of the show on this plant! Just above the filaments you will find 5 greenish yellow stamens and three purple stigmas.
The oval fruits are about two inches long and considered edible but not very tasty.
Foliage and Mature Size of the Blue Passion Flower Vine in NE Florida Landscapes:
Passiflora caerulea is a woody vine that attaches to surrounding trees and garden structures with tendrils The leaves are born in an alternate pattern along the stems. Palmately five lobed, although you may see vines with some foliage having less or more lobes sometimes3, 7, or 9 lobes and are nearly 4 inches in length. The base of each leaf has a twining tendril 2-4 inches long. Foliage may be deciduous or semi evergreen depending on winter temperatures.
The vines on Blue passionflower vine can reach to 10-33ft long. When planting on a trellis remember to wind your vines sideways to get the most blooms and fullness on your trellis, it will go up all on its own but you will need to force it sideways and redirect growth back to the trellis that wants to stray to nearby shrubs trees trees or buildings as they grow aggressively during summertime when the temperatures and rainfall are high.
Exposure for Blue Passion Flower / Passiflora caerulea in NE Florida Landscapes:
Plant these pollinator paradises in a full sun or a full shade location. Morning shade with afternoon sun or morning sun with afternoon shade and filtered light under taller canopy trees are also fine for blue passion flower vines. You do get more blooms in a more sunny location,
Soil Preference for Blue Passion Flower in NE Florida Landscapes:
Passion flowers are tolerant of a wide range of soils and conditions. Passiflora caerulea are at home in NE Floridas sandy soil gardens without needing heavy amendments of compost or manures at the time of planting. Just Plant them into the native soil and give them a nice thick mulch layer to regulate the soil moisture!
Want to see more Passionflower vines for NE Florida landscapes? Links below!