Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Passiflora edulis

Flower and leaves. Photographer Don Wood, south of Narooma

Flower, green fruit, and leaves. Photographer Jackie Miles

Common name

Common passionfruit, Passionafruit

Family

Passifloraceae

Where found

Forest, woodland, roadsides, coastal environs, stream banks, and moist gullies. Coast and ranges.

Notes

Introduced slender hairless climber, stems 20 m long or more, woody. Fruit fleshy. Leaves alternating up the stems, 6–18 cm long, 60–170 mm wide, usually deeply 3-lobed, occasionally unlobed on young plants, surfaces glossy green, margins toothed, the lobe tips usually pointed. Two stalked glands on the leaf stalk near the leaf. Stipules narrow, about 10 mm long, falling early. Flowers white tinged with purple, sepals often green outside, the coloured ring at the base of the petals purple and white, yellowish to pale green or whitish in the centre. Flowers 60–70 mm in diameter, with 5 petals and 5 coloured sepals. Flowers single. Flowers mostly Oct.–Jan. Ripe fruit purple to black, round or oval to oval, 4–5 cm long, edible. Seeds black, surrounded by a yellow jelly (aril).

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Passiflora~edulis (accessed 30 January, 2021)