The Passion Flower

taken on June 14, 2009 with phillips keychain cam by Samantha Taylor


The Passion Flower grows on a vine in Alabama's Wild. It's an unusual flower with several layers of petals. The inside of the flower has a stigma looks like a rim from a Mercedes, the anthers are long and bend out like seeds, there are two set of petals. The top petals are long and tentacle like mixed with white inside and purple lingering on the outside. Underneath that set of petals are white petals like a daisy. This is one of my favorite flowers and I thought I would share it with you since it's one of the most interesting ones I've seen wild so far.

According to Wikipedia, the Passionflower has about 500 genus species. This one that's found in Alabama is called "The Maypop". The maypop produces a vine which is mostly found around kudzu. The kudzu has a leaf that looks almost like the maypop only it's a smaller vine with finger like leaves instead of large butterfly looking ones. The maypop is a perennial which blooms every year and keeps the same plant It doesn't have to die and grow again. It keeps the same vine and produces each year. As the plant matures, it produces a small green fruit called the
passion fruit. It doesn't taste that great, but some people like it. Many butterfly species enjoy eating this fruit in the South. If you aren't familiar with our butterflies we have yellow swallowtails, zebra long wing, viceroy butterflies, and miami blues. The miami blues love staying closer to the ground and around the leaves of kudzu and the maypop.

In study, it has been said that the fruit has been used in Europe for teas, and medicinal purposes. The American Indians have ate it, and Europeans have used it in a tea that cures insomnia. Other uses have been used to make a gum that produces good sleep. Pioneers in Central and South Alabama have used it for hundreds of years by making jams and jellies from it.

These flowers are found in sunlight alongside banks of rivers, around thicket on roadsides. It can also be around kudzu and leafy vine areas. The Invasive plant cannot take over an area where kudzu grows because it has thin limbs and grabs ,on to those large arteries of bigger plants.