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leekle2mane

Passi ID

A neighbor up the street from me has this passionvine growing up around a sign post in her yard. I have tried getting cuttings of this to root, but so far haven't had much luck. Today as I was passing by, she asked if I had gotten any to root and I told her I had not. She also wanted to ask me about some 'dead growth' on her vine. After looking it over, I told her it was likely just getting ready to go dormant for the winter. But also while looking it over, we found fruit growing down near the ground. She was quite surprised, saying that in the years she's had the vine growing, she had never seen fruit on it. I did not tell her, but I attributed the fruit to the fact that I now have two passion vines growing at my yard and this is the first year that either one of mine had been of any decent size, so it's possible this is the first year that hers had gotten cross-pollination.

Anyways, knowing that some passionfruit is edible, I asked her if she knew which variety of passionvine this was so I could check on viability for her. She said she didn't really know and that she had gotten it from a local flea market some years ago. She said she thinks the guy at the market said it was Maypop, but I'm not sure on this. Unlike my vines (P. incarnata and P. caerula), hers remains completely untouched by caterpillars. Mine are always crawling with Gulf Fritillary caterpillars and the Zebra Longwings frequently visit it, though it's location is too sunny for them to lay eggs. Her's is a bit more in the shade during the summer months but gets plenty of sun in the winter due to the southern exposure. If hers was Maypop, it should be veritably infested with caterpillars. She claims she doesn't spray it and I can't say I've ever seen her do much of anything with it aside from training it to the sign post.

As you can see, it has a rather nice purple color to it. They measure about 4-5 inches across. The fruit, which I should have taken a picture of, is currently green and oblong, about 3 inches in length. It grows quite happily in Central Florida without much care or attention and does not appear to spread too aggressively via underground runners as mine tend to. Anyone have any ideas on which variety she has and if the fruit is worth bothering with later? (aside from me snatching one to try to get the seed to germinate since cuttings have been so resistant to rooting)

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