''Passiflora suberosa'' is a species of
passionflower that is native to the
Americas
The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...
.
It is commonly known as corkystem passionflower due to the corkiness of older stems. Other common names include corky passion vine, cork-bark passion flower, corkstem passionflower and corky passionfruit. In
Latin America
Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...
it is called Meloncillo. It is possibly also
cryptic and have multiple species in one.
Description
Leaves and stems

It is a creeping or climbing perennial
liana
A liana is a long-Plant stem, stemmed Woody plant, woody vine that is rooted in the soil at ground level and uses trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the Canopy (biology), canopy in search of direct sunlight. T ...
up to 6 meters long. It has suberous stems in its lower part, glabrous to puberulent.
The leaves are simple, alternate, entire to three-lobed, with both sides glabrous, shiny green. They are 4 to 12 centimeters long when elliptical and up to 5 cm long and 7 cm wide when deeply lobed, sharp lobes, base rounded to truncated, glabrous to puberulent;
petioles 0.5–4 cm long, with a pair of conspicuous and stipitate glands in upper half; linear
stipules
In botany, a stipule is an outgrowth typically borne on both sides (sometimes on just one side) of the base of a leafstalk (the petiole). They are primarily found among dicots and rare among monocots. Stipules are considered part of the anatomy ...
.
The plant is known for the fact that the leaves on one and the same plant vary greatly in shape and size. Another well-known phenomenon is that the lower part of the
trunk becomes corky with aging.
Flowers and fruit
The melliferous flowers are solitary or in pairs, and grow in the
leaf axil
A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the plant stem, stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leav ...
s. Greenish or yellowish in color, they have 5
lanceolate
The following terms are used to describe leaf plant morphology, morphology in the description and taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade ...
sepals, but no petals. Flowering takes place from late summer to late winter.
The inedible fruit is not hardy and transitions from green to
indigo
InterGlobe Aviation Limited (d/b/a IndiGo), is an India, Indian airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It is the largest List of airlines of India, airline in India by passengers carried and fleet size, with a 64.1% domestic market ...
, purple and, lastly, black as it
ripe
Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE, French for "European IP Networks") is a forum open to all parties with an interest in the technical development of the Internet. The RIPE community's objective is to ensure that the administrative and technical co ...
ns. The glabrous fruits contain a multitude of tiny seeds in a dark blue pulp, which are dispersed by birds.
(Not able to verify original reference(6). Forms .org/.edu reference this particular fruit as edible for people but may not have the best of flavor depending on ripeness.)
Range
Its range stretches from
Florida
Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
and the Lower
Rio Grande Valley
Lower Rio Grande Valley (), often referred to as the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) of South Texas, is a region located in the southernmost part of Texas, along the northern bank of the Rio Grande. It is also known locally as the Valley or the 956 (the ...
of
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
south through
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
,
Central America
Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...
, and the
Caribbean
The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
to
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
.
In 1909, it was introduced in
Polynesia
Polynesia ( , ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in ...
and
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
.
It is extremely prolific (up to 1000 seeds per square meter),
smothering
Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects all the tissues and organs, some more rapidly than others. There are m ...
any vegetation it grows on, including trees. In New Caledonia, it is prohibited to introduce the species into the wild.
Reproduction
Many clones of the plant are
self-pollinating
Self-pollination is a form of pollination in which pollen arrives at the Stigma (botany), stigma of a flower (in flowering plants) or at the ovule (in gymnosperms) of the same plant. The term cross-pollination is used for the opposite case, where ...
. In winter, the plant is
hardy
Hardy may refer to:
People
* Hardy (surname)
* Hardy (given name)
* Hardy (singer), American singer-songwriter Places Antarctica
* Mount Hardy, Enderby Land
* Hardy Cove, Greenwich Island
* Hardy Rocks, Biscoe Islands
Australia
* Hardy, ...
down to temperatures around 7 °C. It can be propagated by
sowing
Sowing is the process of planting seeds. An area that has had seeds planted in it will be described as a sowed or sown area.
Plants which are usually sown
Among the major field crops, oats, wheat, and rye are sown, grasses and legumes are ...
or
cuttings.
This species is a host plant for the
caterpillar
Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths).
As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder ...
s of the Gulf fritillary (''
Agraulis vanillae''), Julia heliconian (''
Dryas iulia''), Mexican silverspot (''
Dione moneta''), red postman (''
Heliconius erato''), and zebra heliconian (''
Heliconius charithonia'').
It is a larval host plant for the glasswing butterfly (''
Acraea andromacha'') in Australia.
[Braby, M.F., Butterflies of Australia; Their Identification, Biology and Distribution. CSIRO Publishing 2000]
References
External links
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2068761
suberosa
Plants described in 1753
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
Butterfly food plants
Flora of the Caribbean
Flora of Central America
Flora of Florida
Flora of Mexico
Flora of Southern America
Flora of the Rio Grande valleys
Flora of Peru
Flora without expected TNC conservation status