Passiflora caerulea, the blue passionflower, bluecrown passionflower or common passion flower, is a species of flowering plant native to South America that has been introduced elsewhere.
It forms a vigorous, deciduous or semi-evergreen tendril-bearing vine growing to 10 m (33 ft) or more. Its leaves are palmately lobed, and its fragrant flowers are blue-white with a prominent fringe of coronal filaments in bands of blue, white, yellow, and brown. The ovoid orange fruit grows to 6 cm (2 in) across.
The fruit is edible, but is sometimes described as having an unpalatable or unpleasant flavour. In South America, the plant is known for its medicinal properties, and is used by both the Toba and the Maka peoples.
Passiflora caerulea is a woody vine capable of growing to 25 metres (82 ft) high where supporting trees are available. The leaves are alternate, palmately five-lobed (sometimes three, seven, or nine lobes), and are up to 10 centimetres (4 in) in length while being linear-oblong shaped. The base of each leaf has a flagellate-twining tendril 5–10 cm (2–4 in) long, which twines around supporting vegetation to hold the plant up.
The flower is complex, about 10 cm (4 in) in diameter, with the five sepals and petals similar in appearance, whitish in colour, surmounted by a corona of blue or violet filaments, then five greenish-yellow stamens and three purple stigmas.[3] The fruit is an oval orange-yellow berry, 6 cm (2+1⁄4 in) long by 4 cm (1+1⁄2 in) in diameter, containing numerous seeds.
