Passion fruit is sweet and tangy, but have you ever seen its flower?

Late summer has just passed, and in most parts of the country the sun is still on duty diligently, working hard to spread more heat to places that don't need it. On days like these, when you have to go out and suffer, a cup of "meteor shower" fruit tea can quench your thirst, relieve the heat and restore a good deal of your energy.

Those little black bits in the "meteor shower" are the seeds of today's starpassion fruit. Buy a whole passion fruit from the fruit shop and cut it in half, and you'll see a "ring" of yellowish-black granules growing against the inner wall of the fruit. The black parts are the passion fruit's seeds, and the translucent yellow parts are its arils, which are also the main edible portion of the passion fruit.

The contents of a cut-open passion fruit that trigger trypophobia (?). Image: Fibonacci / wikimedia

"Passiflora coerulea" is something else entirely

Passion fruit is also called Passiflora, because passion fruit was mainly bred fromPassiflora edulis(Passiflora edulis, where edulis means edible), and Passiflora edulis belongs to the genus Passiflora.

In fact, there is another species in this genus whose official Chinese name is exactlyPassiflora coerulea, P. coerulea. Its fruit is very similar to that of Passiflora edulis, but it is small and sour, and few people eat it, so most people are relatively unfamiliar with it, resulting inmixing one thing up with another.

But if you often visit flower markets, or are particularly fond of growingclimbing plants, then the name "clock flower" should be familiar to you. The"clock flower"in flower markets is not the true clock flower of the genus Turnera, but the passionflower P. coerulea. Most plants in the genus Passiflora have flowers with abundant filamentous coronas, shaped like the markings on a clock face, and together with their upright, forked stamens and pistils that look like clock hands, they really arejust like a clock face。

Let's see what time it is~ Image: AL? KUTLU / flickr

How to observe such bizarre flowers

The flowers of the genus Passiflora look verybizarre, but if you break them down layer by layer, they actually follow the basic structure of a flower. The lowest layer of 10 whitish "petals" can be divided into two whorls - the bottom whorl is the slightly green5 sepals, and the whiter whorl above is the5 petals。

. Above that is the most eye-catching part of the whole flower -the corona, which is also the most obviouslydistinguishing part between the flowers of most plants in the genus Passiflora. Generally speaking, their color arrangements differ. The filamentous corona of Passiflora coerulea P. coerulea is dark purple at the base, white in the middle, and pale blue-purple at the tip, while that of Passiflora edulis is pale green at the base, purple near the base, and white and twisted at the end.

The flowers of Passiflora coerulea P. coerulea (left) and Passiflora edulis (right). Also note that the leaves of today's star, Passiflora edulis, are three-lobed. Image: FreeImages.com & B.navez / wikimedia

Above that are the reproductive organs. The flowers of the genus Passiflora have anandrogynophore- first 5 stamens separate out, ending in relatively large anthers, then above that is the ovary, and above that are three separate pistil styles.

Is it passion or suffering

Although the flowers of the genus Passiflora look quite like clock faces, around 1700 Christian missionaries in Brazil, in order to convert the local indigenous people to Christianity, named it flor das cinco chagas based on the form of the stamens of the native passionflower, meaning "flower of the five wounds," using it asa symbol of Jesus' suffering。

. Later this flower was called passioflos, where passio means "suffering"; afterward passio also came to mean "uncontrollable passion (that is, suffering)," giving rise to passion, meaning "zeal, passion"; and later, upon entering the English-speaking world, it produced the name passionflower, which is misunderstood as "passion flower," and passionfruit is misunderstood as "passion fruit" (it actually means "suffering flower," "suffering fruit"）。

). A certain Passiflora (Passiflora sp.). Without considering its original meaning, the purple flower really does look full of passion. Image: Madereugeneandrew / wikimedia

PassionfruitWhen it became a relatively common fruit on the Chinese market, it got the name "passion fruit," adirect transliteration. But besides being a transliteration, part of the reason for this name is that it contains quite a few aromatic substances similar in scent to other tropical fruits,figuratively referring to "a hundred" fragrances, which can be said to achieve fidelity, fluency and elegance. However, if you open a certain search engine and type in "passion fruit," you'll see people claiming it contains the flavors of more than 100 kinds of fruit, which is nonsense.

Thesournessof passion fruit comes from organic acids such as malic acid, quinic acid and oxalic acid, andnot from vitamin C as is commonly believed. Well, although it does indeed contain quite a lot of vitamin C. Many people who like passion fruit love it precisely for this sourness, but the passion fruits currently on the market are actually all varieties specially bred to be less sour.

Mouth watering yet? Image: pixabay

The wildly varied "Passiflora edulis"

The fruit of the original species Passiflora edulisis generally purple-black when ripe, not very sour, but the fruit is smaller in diameter, lower in water content, and less suitable for eating; while its formPassiflora edulis f. flavicarpaP. edulis f. flavicarpa is yellow when ripe, larger in diameter and high in water content, but unfortunately it has a weak fragrance and high acidity, and does not easily set fruit through self-pollination, making manual cultivation costs high. Only when hybrid lines of the two were introduced were these shortcomings overcome, and only then did passion fruit officially come onto the market in large quantities.

The relatively rare yellow passion fruit on the market. Image: liveincostarica.com

The hybrid linehas ripe fruit that is purplish-red,larger in diameter and high in water content, while also low in acidity, high in sweetness, and with a pronounced aroma. Most importantly, it has good self-compatibility and can set fruit through self-pollination, which is what allows us to buy it directly at fruit shops at a relatively low price.

Passion fruit on the market. Image: David Monniaux / wikimedia

In the genus Passiflora, besides Passiflora edulis, quite a few other species are also included in the category of edible passionfruit. The more common ones are banana passionfruit P. tarminiana (banana passionfruit) and giant granadilla P. quadrangularis.

Among them,banana passionfruitis not distributed in our country. In recent years it seems to have been noticed by some people, and there is a trend toward promoting it as a new "novelty fruit." Its fruit is elongated in shape and turns yellow when ripe, somewhat like a banana (in my opinion it actually looks more like finger lime or akebia, including the granular contents), and its sweetness is quite noticeable, but at present it is still anichefruit, available only for a taste at online imported fruit shops.

In order: ripe banana passionfruit, Australian finger lime and the fruit of Akebia trifoliata. Image: blogspot.com & mercadolivre.com

Andgiant granadillahas long been cultivated in the southernmost few provinces of our country. Its flowers have high ornamental value, but its edible fruit seems to be less common. However, in places like Vietnam, giant granadilla, whose fruit is huge and shaped like a papaya, has long been eaten as a vegetable. Althoughit lacks a developed aril and abundant juicefor eating as a fruit, the not fully ripe giant granadilla can be directly cut into pieces andthe flesh boiled, making it a qualified "melon-type" food.

The flower of the giant granadilla, with a brilliant Cthulhu-style form. Image: mercadolivre.com

Finally, asmall tip: Passiflora coerulea, which is good for both viewing and eating, is very easy to keep alive when grown in small quantities. If you're interested, buy one extra passion fruit when you buy them and try growing it.

This article is the 224th article of year 4 of the Species Calendar, from Species Calendar author @ArcherEmiya.