Yesterday I drove up to Austin to meet with Dr. Larry Gilbert, a butterfly researcher who at one time had more than 200 species of passiflora growing in his university greenhouses. He's got fewer than 100 species today, and most of those are in on-campus facilities, but he showed me around one of the smaller greenhouses adjacent to Town Lake. He kept apologizing for the plants not being in bloom, but as their primary role is to serve as butterfly food, they get munched on pretty heavily.

One of the vigorously growing vines that wasn't in flower is p. holoscerecia, pictured above. The leaves were larger than I expected, maybe the size of my hand. I've wanted that one for a while, and all the lit I've read says it demands dry, almost arid conditions. The greenhouse was extremely humid (the swarming mosquitoes attested to that) but Dr. Gilbert says it grows great in well-drained soil with limestone mixed in with it. Good to know if I ever get one.

Then I saw this one. It had winged stems, and the leaves, too, looked very much like p. alata as you can see in the photo above. Except that the leaves were double to triple the size of my alata. I asked Dr. Gilbert what it was, and he said it was p. trilata. I pointed out the size and he agreed, saying the plant "gets huge."

In the back of the greenhouse I spotted some vines growing up the back wall, and there were flowers high up. I wanted to get some pics, so Dr. Gilbert reached up and cut off a length of vine so I could get this close-up image. The plant is p. gibertii, which he originally collected in the wild from Brazil years ago. Because of new biodiversity rules, he can't get any more species from Brazil--the export is restricted. But then he gave me the cut vine and told me I could try and root the cutting if I liked.

Well, duh.

So now I've got several cuttings (hopefully) taking root at home. Fingers are crossed. I've also got some other interesting pics I'll share, but I want to get the identifying info for them first. And I hope to go back in the spring, when Dr. Gilbert's on-campus greenhouses are in bloom.