Passion Vine

I grew up calling these beautiful flowers 'Passion flowers' and the plant 'Passion Vine'. Another common name, ‘Apricot vine’ refers to the oval, apricot sized fruit. Maypops is yet another name used to describe the fruit. It refers to the popping sound made by the ripe fruit if you squeeze or step on it.

The Cherokee referred to the Passion Vine as “ocoee”. The root “oco” refers to the plant and “ee” describes the location. The word “ocoee” literally means the apricot vine place. Passion Vine is the state wildflower of Tennessee and the Tennessee Ocoee River and Valley are named after this plant.

The scientific name, Passiflora incarnata was given to the plant by Spanish missionaries who wove a story of the crucifixion around the parts of the flower. Incarnata is derived from the Latin word ‘carn’, meaning flesh and ‘atus’ , meaning like.

The blooms are typically lavender to purple. White flowers are occasionally seen in the wild, and are available for purchase from online dealers as seed or plants labeled “alba”. Both colors are found natively on Ozarkedge.

Passion vine flowers are large, measuring about 2-3 inches in diameter. The fragrant flowers open and close each day. Single blossoms arise along the vine on individual stalks at the leaf axis. The bloom is actually only 5 petals–some split when fully open. The petals are lavender or white above and white underneath. Sepals are located between each petal. From above, the sepals and petals are the same color, but underneath the petals are white and sepals are green.

A ring of curly fringe is layered above the petals and below the raised anthers. The fringe color mirrors the flower color, being primarily either lavender or white.

Passiflora incarnata is a perennial native to the southeastern United States. The deciduous vines die to the ground each winter and re-emerge in late spring. The vines grow anywhere from 6 to 25 feet. They may be seen trailing along the ground or climbing onto surrounding vegetation. They are rather weak climbers, so their flowers are usually about eye-level or lower.

The leaves are alternate and deeply lobed into 3 segments with pointed tips. Each leaf is smooth on the surface and soft with sparse hairs underneath. The large fruit is solid green and oval shaped. The juice of the fruit is edible when fully ripe.

The primary pollinator of Passiflora incarnata is the Large Carpenter (Xylocopa virginica). In fact, the flowers of Passion vine seem to be perfectly set up for pollination by the Large Carpenter Bee. How? Large Carpenter bees are so large that their hairy thorax rubs against the downward facing anthers while they are nectaring and become covered with pollen. If the style is lowered, the bee may rub against the style at the same time, pollinating it with pollen from a flower they previously visited. When the bee flies to nectar on the next flower, it's likely to rub against its stigma as well, hence pollinating the flower. Take a look at the photos and video below.

Bumble bees and numerous other bees also seek out the flowers for nectar and/or pollen and may aid in pollination.

Other insect visitors include skippers, butterflies, wasps, and beetles. I've read that hummingbirds visit the flowers but I haven't yet observed this.

Two butterflies you're likely to see on this plant are the Variegated and Gulf fritillaries. They aren't pollinating the flowers. Passion vine is a host plant for their caterpillars. If you would like to see more of these two beautiful butterflies, plant our native Passiflora incarnata!

Passiflora incarnata is found growing in glades, grasslands and woodland edge on Ozarkedge. The vine trails the ground among the grasses or climbs upon low to medium high vegetation such as sumac. I’ve seen Passion vine growing in full sun, but the best looking plants are usually the ones that have some afternoon shade.

Passiflora incarnata is native to the eastern half of the United States and 8 states on the western side of the Mississippi river. It is documented as Vulnerable in Indiana and Kansas, Imperiled in Ohio and West Virgin, Apparently Secure in Kentucky and Secure in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. All other states within its range show No Status Rank.

Ants! You'll likely notice many ants crawling around the flowers and leaves of Passiflora incarnata. They are feeding on the nectar which is produced in two places on the plant, on the flower and in extrafloral nectaries located near the leaf petioles. The ants are helpful to the plant by 'protecting' it from leaf damage by caterpillars. They will actually eat the butterfly eggs and even push tiny caterpillars off the plant.