Species
Passiflora tarminiana
Etymology
Passiflora: Passionflower
Common Name(s)
banana passionfruit
Family
Passifloraceae
Flora Category
Vascular - Exotic
Structural Class
Dicotyledonous Lianes and Related Trailing Plants
Habitat
Terrestrial. Lowland and coastal shrubland, margins of remnant forest stands, light gaps, roadsides, wasteland, farm and orchard hedges windbreaks, plantations.
Features
Vigorous vine, often high-climbing. Stems with small stipules that do not persist long on mature stems. Leaves 3-lobed up to 12 cm long, without hairs on either surface. Flower with short tube (up to 6 cm) with a prominent nectary chamber and widely reflexed pale pink petals. Fruit slender and fusiform, up to 9 cm long. Green with small clear spots ripening to yellowish-orange, pulp orange, sweet and edible. Seed 4-5mm long.
Similar Taxa
Can be separated from other Passiflora species, by the three lobed leaves, without hairs, and the absence of stipules on mature stems. When flowering, P. tarminiana has hypanthium/sepal ration 1.3-1.6 and nectary chamber 1.4-2.0 cm wide.
Flowering
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
Flower Colours
Red / Pink
Year Naturalised
1970
Origin
N Andes
Reason For Introduction
Agricultural
Life Cycle Comments
Perennial. Seed bank viability may be up to 2 years.
Reproduction
Reproduces by seed and some vegetative reproduction is possible by suckering stems touching bare soil.
Seed
Many viable seeds are produced in each fruit.
Dispersal
Possums and birds, primarily blackbirds, feed on fleshy fruit (Fromont and King, 1992).
Tolerances
Slightly tolerant to shade, intolerant to frost, moderately tolerant to moisture ranges.
References and further reading
Heenan, PB; Sykes, WR 2003. Passiflora (Passifloraceae) in New Zealand: a revised key with notes on distribution. NZ J Botany 41: 217-221. DOI: 10.1080/0028825X.2003.9512842
This page last updated on 25 Feb 2016