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karyn1_gw

Weird Fruit

karyn1
16 years ago

The fruit from the passies I grew from seed are ripening and they look weird on the inside, at least different then the fruit on my other varieties. The pod parent was an amethystina and I think the pollinator of at least some might have been a violetta but I'm not sure. They just look kind of like it and it was in bloom at the same time. The 2 - 3" fruit is full of little orange "bags" that are open. Each bag contains a black seed that is in a semi-transparent membrane. The inside of the fruit is dry but the orange bags are juicy and no I didn't taste it again. lol I'm even afraid to feed it to my sugar gliders!

Karyn




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Comments (16)

  • jblaschke
    16 years ago

    That looks like the inside of caerulea--red/orange arils with black seeds within. Caerulea fruit are orange on the outside so the color contrast isn't as striking. But that green and orange... wow, that's bright!

    They're probably edible in the technical sense, but might not be very palatable if they're anything like caerulea fruit.

  • karyn1
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Maybe that's what pollinated the amethystina. That might have been blooming around the same time also. It was a couple years ago so it's hard to remember and I didn't hand pollinate them. I should end up with quite a bit of seed if even a quarter of the fruit ripens. I have no idea what might have pollinated these flowers. I have several passies blooming. They all set so much fruit that I wondered if they might be self pollinating. Pretty much every bloom produced a fruit.
    Karyn

  • MissSherry
    16 years ago

    Very pretty seeds, Karyn!
    I've never seen that color, but then my caerulea never fruited - the arils in my p. incarnata fruits are just pale yellow.
    Sherry

  • karyn1
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    I got a ripe fruit from one of the other plants and it's very similar inside but the ripe fruit is very dark purple. Maybe if the green fruit hadn't dropped it would have turned purple but the seeds are all ripe. My caeruleas have never produced fruit that contained seeds, just empty sacks. The same this year, lots of puff balls on the caerulea. The Sunburst also produced empty fruit.
    Karyn

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  • passionflow
    16 years ago

    Interesting. Probably pollinated by the bees and caerulea between them. Even when fully ripe I think the shell would still be greenish. The orange bags are the arils. There is often a membrane around the 'bag' of seed. I suspect the sugar gliders would go crazy for it. I have to say that I am surprised that some caerulea species are producing empty fruit - a common enough phenomenon with hybrids but very unusual for caerulea. Fascinating but I have known some clones flower furiously as MissSherry described but never fruiting.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Passiflora caerulea fruit

  • karyn1
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    So you don't think that I would poison my sugar gliders? My caerulea fruit is yellowish orange on the outside but completely empty on the inside, not even any undeveloped seeds. I'm used to the arils in my other fruit completely enclosing the seed and being moist so I wasn't sure if the orange covering or the inner transparent covering was the aril. I brought in most of my passies for the season and was able to save some fruit when I cut the vines back. I'll see if it continues to ripen inside. I think the purple fruit I found was from a P. morifolia. I didn't realize that the vines had become tangled until I was cutting them back today. Then again I found a couple other passies that I thought I'd lost earlier in the season hidden under some large plants. lol Is the morifolia fruit palatable?
    Karyn

  • jblaschke
    16 years ago

    Karyn, just don't give the sugar gliders the rind of the fruit. The pulpy inner arils (the orange part with the seeds) are the edible part of the fruit (when ripe--but I assume you already know this). If the seeds are mature and dark, as yours are, they should have shed any cyanide weeks ago and be OK to eat.

  • passionflow
    16 years ago

    A Google search should prove comforting re 'sugar gliders passion fruit'. I think they would be very keen on the fruit. Animals learn to adapt very quickly. In my mother's garden the squirrels have discovered P. Betty Myles Young' fruit - difficult to miss it - and have quickly learnt that the green fruit are not tasty but the yellow are. It is not in plants interests generally to kill off animals - just to give them a warning if something is not ripe. I have tried all sorts of passion fruit with caution and some are so grim that you could not force enough down to do yourself harm. Morifolia is not edible as far as I know.

    Here is a link that might be useful: P. 'Betty Myles Young 'fruit.

  • karyn1
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    Those Betty Myles Young fruit look like lemons. I'll see if the girls like the next ripe fruit I pick. Hopefully they'll like it but not too much because it's a very limited supply. lol Thanks for the info.
    Karyn

  • cincinnata
    16 years ago

    They look very like Morifolia fruit - which are extremely acidic, once I took the plunge to try them! Also the Morifolia seeds are extremely difficult to clean. I usually put my seeds/pulp between kitchen paper and after a couple of days drying on my computer monitor they are easy to clean. Not the Morifolia! If they are not cleaned very fresh the arils stick to the seeds (not the paper) and are almost impossible to clean. This last summer while on holiday in the UK I 'pocketed' a fallen Morifolia fruit from Kew Gardens (it was on the ground!) only to find in my absence I had it growing in the garden and fruiting madly. Are all black fruited passis very fertile/self fertile? I knew the Coriacea bred like a rabbit but this year have also found that the Morifolia and the Suberosa do the same.

  • passionflow
    16 years ago

    Hi Cincinnata
    I have to confess that I gave up cleaning seed many years ago. Any fruit once it has dropped I leave in the window for a few days to be certain that it is fully ripe. I then open it scrape the seeds and arils out and prod them around till they separate a bit and leave them to dry for a further few days on the labelled envelope they are going into. Then they go in the fridge. When I want to sow them I presoak for a day or so and the arils tend to ferment off and if they stick to the seed I just plant them like that. Coriacea and suberosa have always been self fertile for me. I think the number of species that can self is underestimated.
    Karyn I am looking forward to pics of sugar gliders eating passion fruit for my site! Perhaps try them on edulis first if the shop sell some.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Seed storage

  • karyn1
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    I had some more ripe morifolia fruit and gave them one. They didn't like it and the poor things had purple faces and paws for hours. lol I should have taken a pic. I'll give them one of the other varieties when it ripens and I'll get a photo.
    Karyn

  • karyn1
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    The ripe fruit from the passie cross smells like petroleum. I can barely stand the smell and I'm sure the gliders won't go near it. I'll wait and let them eat the fruit from my P. vitifolia. They should like that one.
    Karyn

  • mamabotanica_sbcglobal_net
    16 years ago

    Isn't the pericarp the part that makes up the outside edge of the fruit? Did the sugar gliders eat it and do well? I've got a lovely fruit from my P. edulis and I want to feed it to my rabbits. Any ideas of what kind of compounds it has and medicinal herb effects?
    Thanks in advance for your opinions and experiences!

  • angie83
    16 years ago

    My morifloria fruit looked like that to I have them planted now hope they sprout soon.

  • karyn1
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    My vitifolia fruit isn't ripe yet so the gliders haven't had any. I'm sure they wouldn't go anywhere near the morifolia or the amethystina cross fruit. It stinks to high heaven and the smell lingers. Yuck. At least the flowers have a nice scent. I'm just going to toss the whole vitifolia fruit into their dish and let them decide what parts they want to eat. I will slice it open for them.
    Karyn

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