Passiflora incarnata Purple Passion Flower May Pops Apricot vine
 Seed & Plants
(pass-eh-FLOOR-ah  in-car-NAH-tuh)
Easyliving Native Perennial Wildflowers
Native Wild Flower Seeds & Plants for Home Landscaping & Prairie Restoration

For other native wildflowers visit the wildflower seed list , to order Passiflora incarnata seeds or plants copy the orderform or email questions, comments, and orders to john@easywildflowers.com 

Passiflora incarnata Purple Passionflower potted plants are available, $4 each plus UPS shipping.  Plants are shipped on Monday/Tuesday by UPS.  Shipping costs are determined by your zip code & the weight of your order.  Please contact us by email with your address for availability and shipping costs on potted plants.

We accept payment by check or money order & through the paypal website

Seed shipping chart at bottom of page

    Passiflora incarnata Purple Passionflower has several common names including Passion Flower, Purple passionflower vine, Apricot vine and May Pops.  Passion Flower is a very attractive sprawling or climbing vine up to 20 feet long with edible fruits and flowers.  The unusual flowers are 3 inches wide with several petals and a purple fringe and have a rich fragrance resembling that of carnations.  The smooth, round 2 inch fruits are edible and turn yellow when ripe.  Passion Flower vine is attractive on a garden trellis, fence, hanging over a wall or sprawled on a slope. 

     Passiflora incarnata Passion Flower seeds are slow to germinate, they contain a natural chemical that slows their germination.  This chemical is slowly removed by contact will cool damp soil.  It is possible to germinate them faster by giving them a pretreatment.  I received the following emails from two of my customers describing the successful pretreatment they used.

email from Sandy -   "Just a short e-mail to let you know that your Passiflora incarnata passion flower seed, sown Feb 22, is germinating (March 1).  Was given a 24 hour soak in 5% ethanol cider (changed twice) on gentle bottom heat.  They are now peaking through the medium (20 sown 3 are up) and are under grow lights.  Passiflora have a germination inhibitor that is more soluble in alcohol (mimics the natural fermentation of fallen fruit) than water.  This info is from a master gardener I spoke to months ago.  In a couple of months the little passifloras should be in one gallon containers judging from their vigor"

email from Kristl -    "I had never grown Passiflora incarnata before and all the info out there seemed to indicate a warm-cold-warm pattern. Instead I tried treating it with GA-3 (overnight soak). This was about 2 weeks ago. As of yesterday about 80% had germinated."  The GA3 Kristl refers to is Gibberellic Acid, a chemical often used to improve germination of seeds that are normally slow/difficult to germinate.

    Passiflora incarnata Passion Flower vines spread by underground roots and  should be planted where spreading will not be a problem or can be controlled by mowing.

    Passiflora incarnata Passion Flower is a host plant for the beautiful Gulf Fritillary, Varigated Fritillary, and Zebra Butterflies and Passion Flower fruits are a food source for wildlife.

     Passion Flower vine occurs wild in sandy fields, fence rows, low woods, and along railroads and roadsides from Florida to Texas, north to Maryland and Virginia, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Oklahoma.  Passion flower vines are grown as annuals farther north. Passifloraceae ( Passion-Flower Family)

  For other flowers visit the wildflower seed list , to order- copy the orderform or 
email questions, comments, and orders to john@easywildflowers.com 
We accept payment by check or money order and through PayPal

Seed shipping chart at bottom of page
The information below on Passiflora incarnata Purple Passionflower complements of USDA, NRCS. 2001. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.1
  (http://plants.usda.gov). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

PURPLE PASSIONFLOWER Passiflora incarnata

Alternate names

Wild passionflower, maypop, apricot vine, old field apricot, Holy-Trinity flower, mayapple, molly-pop, passion vine, pop-apple, granadilla, maycock, maracoc, maracock, white sarsaparilla.

 Uses

Ethnobotanic: The Houma, Cherokee and other Native American tribes used purple passionflower for food, drink, and medicinal purposes.  Captain Smith, in 1612, reported that Native Americans in Virginia planted the vines for the fruits.  The fruits were eaten either raw or boiled to make syrup.  A beverage was made from the fruits by crushing and straining the juice.  Sometimes the juice was thickened by mixing it with flour or cornmeal.  The young shoots and leaves were eaten, cooked with other greens.  The roots were used in an infusion to treat boils, and to “draw out inflammation” of wounds from briers or locusts.  Babies were given a tea made from the roots to aid in weaning.  The roots were beaten with warm water and used as eardrops to treat earaches.  Root infusions were used to treat liver problems.  Soaking the crushed roots in drinking water made a “blood tonic.”  The plant was also used as a sedative to treat nervous conditions and hysteria.

 Description

General: Passionflower Family (Passifloraceae).  Purple passionflower is a native, perennial vine.  The slightly pubescent vines climb with tendrils that arise from the axils of the leaves.  The vines can range from 2 to 6 m long.  The alternate leaves (6 to 15 cm long and wide) are palmate with 3 lobes and finely serrated margins.  The spectacular flowers are pale-lavender or, rarely, white, with five petals (3 to 4 cm long, 4 to 7 mm wide) and five sepals (2.5 to 3.5 cm long).  The complex flower has a “crown” or corona of numerous fringelike segments that arise from above the petals.  The corona is white or lavender with purple bands.  The reproductive parts are interestingly arranged and add to the exotic beauty of the flower.  The unique appearance of the flowers was purported, by early Spanish explorers, to represent the sufferings of Christ (for a detailed description see Coffey 1993).  The plants bloom from June to September.  Sweet-smelling, yellowish fruits develop in two to three months after flowering and may be harvested from July to October.  The pulpy fruit, or “maypop”, is large and oval, about the size of a hen’s egg (4 to 10 cm long).  The fruit contains many flattened, dark-colored seeds (4 to 6 mm long) that are covered with an arillate pulp, which is the edible portion of the fruit.

 Habitat: Purple passionflower is common in open or cultivated fields, rocky slopes, thin woods, roadsides, fencerows and thickets. 

Establishment

Purple passionflowers require direct sunlight for at least half of the day.  The plants prefer fertile, well-drained soils but will grow in heavier clay soils.  Pick a spot in the garden where the plants may either climb or spread freely.  The plants may be propagated from seed or by cuttings.  It is best to plant the seeds directly into an outdoor seedbed.  The seedlings may be transplanted after they have three or four leaves.

   The map below shows areas where native Passiflora incarnata Passion Flower vine grows wild.  When planted it will grow over a much wider area than shown.  USDA plant hardiness zones 5 to 10.   Grown as an annual in colder areas.

Use the chart below for shipping charges on Passiflora incarnata Passion Flower seeds, to order copy the order form or email questions, comments & orders to john@easywildflowers.com 
Please contact us by email with your address for shipping charges & availability on Passiflora incarnata Passion Flower potted plants

We accept payment by check, money order, and through Paypal

The minimum seed order amount is $10, this can be a combination of different seeds.
Seeds & Potted plants are available now

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Easyliving Wildflowers
PO Box  522
Willow Springs,  Mo.  65793
phone-fax 417-469-2611 
We accept payment by check or money order and through the PayPal website

Passiflora incarnata Purple Passionflower Plant distribution map complements of USDA, NRCS. 2001. The PLANTS Database, Version 3.1
  (http://plants.usda.gov). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.