One of my favorite native vines is passion flower

One of my favorite native vines is passion flower, frequently called maypops and officially recognized as Passiflora incarnata.

The intricate structure and beauty of the flower inspired early Jesuit missionaries to honor it with multiple descriptions of religious symbolism. If you are curious about the details, simply go online and search for “passion flower religious symbolism,” and you should be more than satisfied.

Lauri Lawson, “plant whisperer” and Niche Gardens horticulturist, is downright passionate about passion flower. Recently she told me, “Native passion flower is one of my top favorite plants ever! It’s easy to grow, it’s exotically beautiful and it has special edible and medicinal qualities. It appeals to numerous important pollinators, particularly some of the big carpenter bee types, that appear to be on quite a carnival ride as they whirl ’round and ’round gathering pollen and nectar and pollinating while they’re at it. The fruit, maypops, that follow are full of succulent, tropical-sweet seed sacs. The leaves have a traditional use for calming the nerves, insomnia and hypertension.”

Lauri and I both value Dr. Jim Duke’s herbal studies, and you will find his passion flower discussion in The Green Pharmacy very helpful and most interesting.

We also value this plant in the garden. It’s a vigorous vine, and Lauri cautions to make certain it has lots of space to twine and spread. I will add that once it is established, passion flower is certain to remain for a long time. But don’t expect its reappearance each season at the spot of your original planting (I discovered this from my own experience). Its roots run underground in all directions so that you never know where it may appear until it breaks dormancy in late spring. Telltale vertical, three-lobed leafy stems can appear anywhere in the lawn and garden beds.

I watch for the stems every year from late April to mid-May and when I spot them, I set mighty trellises at the base of the stems to help them reach for the sky. I am rewarded from mid-summer until frost with a succession of the most beautiful flowers imaginable.

And as Lauri described, one can become engaged in observing the bumblebees and other pollinators examining the intricate flowers.

During cool fall afternoons I have observed that some of those big solitary bees nestle down in the flowers, seemingly taking shelter within those closing flowers for the duration of the chilly night.
During these next several weeks, I plan to extend my observations of specific bee-sheltering flowers early in the mornings to discover whether or not those bees in fact do spend the night within the flower.

If you desire to have your own passion flower, you’re in luck. The N.C. Botanical Garden will have a few passion flowers at their annual fall plant sale this coming Saturday morning (Friday evening preview for Garden members), and Niche Gardens always has a good supply available.

As no garden exists without passion, no garden should exist without a passion flower vine!


Email Ken Moore at flora@carrborocitizen.com. Find previous Ken Moore Citizen columns at The Annotated Flora (carrborocitizen.com/flora).