Passiflora mixta L.f.
northern banana passionfruit
Vigorous vine, often high-climbing; shoots densely hairy, angular when young. Lvs 3-lobed; petioles to c. 6 cm long, densely hairy, with 2-8, sessile or subsessile glands; stipules 2-4 mm wide, broad-ovate, toothed, with a single long bristle; lamina lobes subequal, mostly 6-12 cm long, elliptic to elliptic-ovate, serrate, extending ?-3/4 of distance in from the margin, soon glabrous above excepting midrib, with veins remaining moderately to densely hairy below, otherwise glabrous or glabrate, acute to apiculate; middle lobe, 2-4 cm wide. Fls ⚥, solitary. Pedicels > petioles. Bracts 3-4 cm long, united for ⅓-⅔, puberulent, entire. Hypanthium 6-8 cm long, glabrous outside. Perianth segments 4-6.5 cm long, elliptic; sepals pink inside, greenish outside, with short horn near apex; petals pink; corona a ring of purple, white-tipped scales (sometimes purple rim faint) 1-3 mm long. Filaments 1-2 cm long, whitish, > anthers; anthers 6-10 mm long. Ovary white-villous. Fr. usually 8-9 × 3.5-4 cm, ellipsoid, orange, or yellowish orange, densely hairy; pulp orange, sweet, edible. Seed 4-5 mm long, ellipsoid to obovoid, dark reddish, alveolate.
N.: locally common in N. Auckland and Auckland, occasional further south; S.: occasional south to Banks Peninsula (Charteris Bay) and Otago Peninsula.
N. Andes 1970
Margins of remnant forest stands, windbreaks, plantations, usually in the vicinity of settlements.
FL Jan-Dec.
The stipules of P. mixta are illustrated in Fig. 93. The correct taxonomic placement of the northern banana passionfruit is somewhat problematic. The N.Z. plant has usually been referred to P. mollissima as have similar plants from Kenya [De Wilde, W. J. J. O., Fl Trop. East. Africa. Passifloraceae 15 (1975)]. This entity differs significantly from true P. mollissima, as indicated in the key, but appears to be referable to P. mixta. De Wilde referred African plants to P. mollissima because they lack the distinctly angular stem of P. mixta. However, this character does not seem to be of great significance as at least the young stems are angled in all N.Z. material referred to P. mollissima and P. mixta. Material of P. mixta grown in N.Z. from seed recently obtained as this sp. from the Canary Is matches the wild N.Z. plant except that the perianth is orange-pink or reddish rather than pink. Descriptions of P. mixta mention the perianth colour as orange-pink or reddish pink. The northern banana passionfruit is therefore treated here as a form of P. mixta.
