Passiflora incarnate, or passionocvet
The family of Passionflower( Passion Flower) numbers more than 400 species. Among them there are many kra-syvotsvetuschih and fruit-bearing lianas. Many species are introduced into the culture and grown in the countries of Europe and America, and also in Australia as ornamental, fruit and medicinal plants. Passiflora delicate, or banana, passion fruit, or Brazilian passion fruit, passionflower tetrahedral, or giant grana-dilla and passionflower ligulate, or sweet granada-dilla, form tasty fruits, even if they grow in a normal apartment.
Grenadilla Giant( Passiflora quadrangularis), or passionflower tetrahedral. Fruits reach 25-30 cm in length and 2-2.5 kg of weight. They are served for dessert and used in fruit salads.
Also edible are the tubers of this plant, reaching 4 kg of mass and tastefully reminiscent of sweet potato.
Passiflora blue( Passiflora caerulea) from Brazil with a blue or blue striped crown and purple pillars, most often found in greenhouses. It can be seen in the greenhouses of the Botanical Garden in St. Petersburg. It was planted in our room culture. This species is also prized for its fragrant juicy fruits. Fruits usually oval or ovate, rarely spherical, their color varies from yellow to violet. The shell of the fetus is thin, dry in some species, others are thicker, spongy. The flesh, as a rule, is very fragrant, sweet and sour. Inside the fruit are numerous seeds enclosed in juicy capsules.
Passion flora sissiosiform( Passiflora sicyoides).In this plant, the mustache makes a full turn in 30-45 minutes. Finding the support, he, like a wire spring, tightly wraps around it and pulls the whole plant up. It takes a few minutes to 1-2 days to form a complete loop. As the plant grows, more and more new antennae are formed, and the liana is climbing higher and higher. Flexible stems of lianas usually tolerate a drop well, and if the support chosen by them is unreliable and the tree falls, dragging them along with it, it does not do them any harm. They immediately start new shoots and climb up already along neighboring trees.
Passiflora edible( Passiflora edulis) is also native to Brazil, it is most common in culture. Sweet, sourish-sweet fruits of it, reaching a length of 9 cm, go for the preparation of drinks, sorbets, ice cream and various jellies. This rather unpretentious plant begins to bear fruit in the first or second year from sowing and under favorable conditions yields two crops a year.
Passiflora ligulidae( Passiflora lingularis), or sweet granadilla, comes from the mountainous regions of South and Central America, holds the palm tree for taste. This rapidly growing liana is not only used for food, but also serves as a magnificent ornamental plant. It is used for curling houses, tapestries and arbors. Especially beautiful are its orange-red fruits, distinguished by a delicate aroma.
Passionflora winged, or passion fruit, grows wild in Brazil, where it is very popular. Flowers of various shades of red or purple, with long filamentous filaments, very fragrant, reach 12 cm in diameter. The fruits are large, 10-15 cm in size, fragrant, bright orange or yellow. It grows well in greenhouses, greenhouses, rooms.
Some members of the family of passionflower are poisonous and contain varying amounts of hydrocyanic acids.
The roots of passionate stinkflow are used by the inhabitants of South America as a good remedy for spasms, and the roots of passionflower tetrahedral as anthelmintic. Among the locals there is a belief that the roots of this plant contain a substance that has a lethargic effect.
Despite the variety of species, both in indoor and outdoor conditions, European amateur growers most often grow Passionflower incarnate( other names are passionflower, cavalier star, passionflower meat-red, passionflower corpulent), and Passi-
flora blue. Passionflower incarnate is valued not only for decorativeness and delicious fruits, but also for its unique healing properties, and the culture was introduced by the Indians.
Homeland of Passionflower Incarnate - Brazil, Bermuda, southern, central and southeastern United States. In the middle of the XIX century, the plant was brought to Sukhumi and has since been cultivated in the humid subtropics of Transcaucasia. In these climatic conditions in the passionflower in winter the aboveground parts completely die off. However, thanks to rapid growth, he manages to give new 4-6-meter shoots during one growing season.
Its name was given to an unusual flower in the 17th century. The generic name comes from the lat. Passio - suffer and flos - flower. It is believed that the Italian Jesuit Ferrari was the first to discern in his structure the symbolism of the tools of the passions of the Lord. The drawings on the flowers of the creeper are very similar to the crucifixion( cross).The rising stigma of the flower symbolizes the three nails with which Christ was crucified. Five hammer-shaped stamens symbolize the five wounds of Christ. Below these floral structures are the edge of colored threads, known as the crown. Colored threads symbolize the halo or the crown of thorns. The corolla has ten petals, each symbolizing one of the holy apostles. Leaves and green vines represent the hands and whips of the accusers of Christ.
Cavalier star is called a plant for the similarity of its geometrically correct flower with the order.
Passiflora incarnate - a powerful perennial herbaceous vine, in natural conditions occurs in the humid subtropics of the American continent. The stem is smooth, rounded, climbing trees, and in the absence of support, a creeping, slightly arboreal base. Leaves up to 10 cm long, leathery, long-petioled, deeply trifid, arranged on the stalk alternately. On top of the leaves are green, from below grayish, in their axils there are antennae with which the liana climbs along tropical trees. Individual shoots reach a length of 9 meters. Rhizome well developed, horizontal, several meters long and 3-15 mm thick. Flowers on long pedicels, single, 7-9 cm in diameter, regular, with a double perianth, petals pale-lilac, with one middle vein;Stamens numerous, highly elevated column, pistils are also numerous. Flowers emit a strong smell, reminiscent of the smell of lilac. Between the whisk and the stamens are two rings of long, threadlike colored fringes, which gives the flowers a unique beauty. Fruit is an oval, juicy berry of a greenish-yellow or yellow-orange color, 5-7 cm long and 3-4 cm wide, with black seeds. The flesh of the fruit is edible, contains a lot of ascorbic acid.
Passionflower blooms in June - September;fruits ripen in August - October.
The plant is rather thermophilic, so it experiences a subtropical winter in a state of biological rest, in the form of rhizomes. When growing in room conditions Passiflora also need a rest period.