Flora of New Zealand Series

banana passionfruit

Vigorous vine; shoots densely hairy, weakly angular when young. Lvs 3-lobed; petioles 1.5-5 cm long, densely hairy, with (4)-6-12 stalked or subsessile glands; stipules 5-10 mm wide (excluding subulate apex when present), subreniform, with glandular teeth; lamina lobes usually 5-14 cm long, extending 1/2-⅔ of the distance in from the margin, usually ± tomentose below, hairy or glabrate above, elliptic or elliptic-ovate, narrow-lanceolate on juvenile shoots, serrate or serrulate, acute; middle lobe largest, 4-9 × 2-5 cm. Fls ⚥, solitary. Pedicels > petioles, densely hairy. Bracts 1.5-3.75 cm long, ovate or broad-ovate, ± tomentose outside, entire or slightly toothed, united for lower 1/4-1/2 until anthesis. Hypanthium 8-9.5 cm long, glabrous outside. Sepals 2-3.8 cm long, elliptic, green on reverse, pink or rose inside, rounded and with short horn near apex; petals similar but pink on both sides; corona a ring of purple, white-tipped scales 1-2 mm long. Filaments 1.5-2 cm long, pale, often scarcely > anthers; anthers (7)-10-12 mm long. Ovary white-villous. Fr. (6)-7-12 × 2-3 cm, ± ellipsoid, yellow or orange-yellow, puberulent; pulp sweet and orange, edible. Seed 4.5-5.5 mm long, broad-obovoid, dark red to black, alveolate.

N.; S.: Auckland to Otago Harbour, particularly just N. of Wellington, coastal Marlborough, including the Sounds, and coastal parts of Nelson.

Tropical N. South America 1958

Mainly forest and plantation margins, also on isolated trees, sometimes a serious weed.

FL Jan-Dec.

The stipules of P. mollissima are illustrated in Fig. 93. Banana passionfruit is the commonest naturalised sp. of the genus in N.Z. The name banana passionfruit is mainly applied to P. mollissima in N.Z. except in the northernmost areas, where this sp. is largely replaced by P. mixta and where the name is applied to that sp. too. It is still cultivated very successfully as far S. as Stewart Id although it has been largely superseded by P. edulis as a fr. crop.