Species

Passiflora apetala

Etymology

Passiflora: Passionflower
apetala: Without petals

Common Name(s)

bat-wing passion flower

Family

Passifloraceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Exotic

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Lianes and Related Trailing Plants

Distribution

Found naturalised in Northland and Auckland and has also been previously recorded growing in a butterfly park in Thames in the Waikato.

Habitat

Found in regenerating native forest and scrub, home gardens and amongst hedges and fence lines.

Features

A shade tolerant vine. It has leaves with two large lobes (that resemble a bat wing) and some have pale green stripes along the midribs. It has small yellow/green coloured flowers (7-12mm diameter) and produces small black berries about the size of a smll grape (7-15mm diameter). The berries are inedible and non-toxic to humans but attractive to birds.

Flower Colours

Green,Yellow

Year Naturalised

Imported approx. 30 years ago.

Origin

Costa Rica and Panama, Central America

This page last updated on 3 Jan 2014