Passiflora edulis Sims
black passionfruit
Vigorous vine, glabrous except for pistil and stamens. Shoots slightly angular. Lvs deeply 3-lobed, but entire on young plants; petiole 1-3 cm long, with 2 sessile glands near apex; stipules 10-15 mm long, linear-subulate, entire; lamina lobes ± elliptic, submembranous, deep shining green above, rounded at base; middle lobe largest, 6-10 × 3-5.5 cm, serrate or serrulate, obtuse to acute. Fls ⚥, solitary. Pedicels 4-6 cm long at flowering. Bracts 1.5-2 cm long, ovate, free, coarsely serrate. Hypanthium inconspicuous. Sepals 2.5-3 cm long, oblong, green on reverse, white inside; petals white, similar to sepals; corona threads 2-2.5 cm long, white with purple base. Filaments puckered, purple towards base, otherwise white; anthers 8-10 mm long, > filaments. Ovary puberulent. Fr. 5-6.25 × 4.75-5.75 cm, broad-ellipsoid or subglobose, dull purple; pulp orange, sweet. Seed c. 5 mm long, ovate, black, pitted.
N.: N. Auckland (plantations at Waitangi and Silverdale), near Auckland (Waitakere Range), Great Barrier Id; K.: well-established on Raoul Id where it grows so abundantly on and near the forest margin in some places that attempts have been made to eliminate it.
Tropical America 1950
FL Jul-Mar.
This sp. is the black passionfruit of commerce and is widely cultivated in warmer parts of the country. All wild and virtually all cultivated plants in N.Z. belong to f. edulis, and not the less hardy, yellow-fruited f. flavicarpa Degener which is the usual form grown in tropical Polynesia.
