Purple Possom Passion Fruit Vine / Passion Flower Vine / Passiflora edulis in the NE Florida Landscape
Passiflora edulis… Whats in a name?
( Pass-siff-FLOR-ruh ED-yoo-liss ) Passiflora means ‘passion flower’ and edulis means ‘edible’ not that that will ever get anywhere, sometimes its just fun to see the breakdown 🙂Sometimes the botanical name gives you clues to what the plant is like and sometimes its just the hybridizer’s or discoverers name or the name of someone they wanted to honor. Either way, its fun to know!
Passion fruits are grown all over the world, UFIFAS publication HS1406 ‘The Passion Fruit in Florida’ states in fact that there is an estimated 1.5 metric TONS grown annually for commercial purposes, excluding home garden production! So to say that passion fruit is loved all around the world is a bit of an understatement. It is after all used to flavor the beloved drink of our youth… Hawaiian punch 🙂
Passionflower vines are short lived perennials that you can expect to live a few seasons in the landscape.
Origins of Purple Passion Fruit Vine Passiflora edulis:
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.
Passiflora edulis is a climbing evergreen vine native to South America / Brazil to be more precise. Purple Possum is a selection of seedlings grown from passiflora edulis that was considered to be superior and therefore “selected” by Possum Trot Nursery for cultivation to ensure that you get the same plant with the same fruit qualities etc. Purple Possum is now the most commonly grown cultivar of passion fruit in Florida because well, its tasty!
Blooms and Fruit of ‘Purple Possum’ Passion Fruit Vine / Passiflora edulis :
The blooms on the Purple possum passion fruit vine have 5 white sepals and 5 white petals and 5 anthers above the carola that is made up of the brightly colored purple to white curly filaments. Above that carola of filaments 5 anthers and in the center above that is the 3 pointed stigma and the ovum which is where the fruit that is botanically a berry will form. I cant think of another flower with all its male and female parts so beautifully on display. The really are a marvel and the perfect one to take a minute and look at the intricacy of a flower. Plants are amazing!
Those beautiful flowers will form fruit in 70-75 days on the plant. In South Florida vines will produce both flowers and fruit from spring through to fall. In North and central Florida flowering normally occurs in spring will form fruits by midsummer. A one year old passion fruit vine can produce between 5-15 pound of fruit in a growing season with peak production from midsummer to fall ( In north / central FL) passion fruits form on new growth and ideal temperatures for new growth and fruit production are between 65-90 degrees. Temperatures below 59 degrees and above 32 may experience chilling damage, reduction in growth flower and fruit abundance quality etc.
Purple Possum passion vine has self compatible ( perfect or complete flowers) containing both male and female parts making them self pollinating, there is no need to have more than one vine to get fruit. If your not getting fruit forming on your flowers try pollinating by hand, there are some You Tube videos about how to pollinate passion flowers yourself to increase yield. If you don’t have a lot of pollinator attracting plants in your home garden and your just not seeing the big bees on your flowers it may be worth doing. Or it may just be time to replace your vine with another plant. The life expectancy of a productive passion vine is 3-4 years. The amount of pulp surrounding the seeds in the passion fruit is largely dependent on the quality of the pollination that occurred. Inadequate pollination = poor quality half filled fruits.
The skin or peel has a medium dark purple wine color with tiny light spots all over it. The fruits are 2.5 – 3.5 inches long and 2 inches in diameter. The pulp around the seeds of the fruit is a bright golden orange and very sweet with a strong passion fruit flavor and fragrance. The UFIFAS publication above will have all the information you could possibly need to know for growing passion fruit in Florida, while it is designed for commercial growers and 10 pages long there are lots of pictures and its an easy read…pinky promise!
Foliage and Mature Size of the Maypop / Purple Passion Flower Vine in NE Florida Landscapes:
Deeply trilobed leaves are a bright green and shiny on the surface and duller and flat underneath. The immature leaves are not lobed (monolobed) or bilobed intermediate leaves (think of those as teenagers) and as the plant matures the leaves change shape to the typical 3 lobed leaves. They are single and born on the stems in an alternating pattern. There is at the base of each leaf an extra-floral nectary that will secrete a sugary substance that attract nectar seeking insects like ants and bees.
While Passiflora edulis / Purple Possum may be evergreen in Southern portions of the state they defoliate at 32 ° F so they are winter dormant for us here in NE Florida. Stems can be damaged at just a few degrees under 32° and all above ground portions can can be lost including stems when temperatures reach mid 20’s° F for sustained periods and may or may not recover from underground tissues. They are root hardy for zone 9 and top hardy for zones 10-11. Underground and lower stem portions can be protected with insulating bags/ piled mulch or straw etc. when a hard freeze is in the forecast for our area of NE Florida.
The vines on passiflora edulis can attain 35 ft in length in a single years growing season and if not damaged by winter temperatures could reach 100 ft! 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. Also remember that flowers and fruit forms best on those hanging new growth portions so let them hang and don’t be to particular about keeping them tight into the trellis structure. Commercially vines are trained to a single stem and then allowed to sprawl out along a wire or fence with NORTH- SOUTH facing ends to maximize sun exposure and allowed to hang down freely from along the upper portion of fence structure.
Exposure for Purple Possum / passiflora edulis in NE Florida Landscapes:
Plant these pollinator paradises in a full sun location on a north south facing trellis or up a pergola or tree that will allow for the plants upper most portions to sit in full sun. The more sun the better for flower and fruit production. Although the plant will still thrive in shadier areas they will produce more blooms and therefore more fruit with sunnier locations.
Soil Preference / Plant Care for Purple Possum Flower Passion Fruit Vines in NE Florida Landscapes:
Passion flowers are tolerant of a wide range of soils and conditions. Passiflora edulis will tolerate occasionally wet, acidic, slightly alkaline, sand loam or clay soils and are at home in NE Floridas sandy soil gardens. That being said if you are trying to maximize production from your passion fruit they prefer slightly acid soils but do well with PH ranging from 6-7.5 and really need to be in areas with excellent drainage. While keeping the soil moist is important excess moisture causes problems and can reduce fruit production and overall vine health. Building a shallow box (an open bottom raised bed) filled with soil for your passion fruit vines will keep your vines up out of water logged soils during the rain season and keep your vines producing fruit! Just make sure you don’t utilize a flood zone for your passion fruit plants. Passion flower vines are shallow rooted in general so that may or may not be an issue for you but they don’t like their roots in wet or water logged soils.
Want to see more Passionflower vines for NE Florida landscapes? Links below!
Blue Passion Flower Vine / Passiflora caerulea