banana passionfruit

Photo: Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz — CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Survives zone 8 through 9

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Ornamental passionflower — fruit small and largely insipid. Care: Winter protection — mulch, fleece, or a warm wall.

Hardiness

Zone 8–9

Habit

Vine

Edible part

Flower, Fruit

Ripens

Late summer–autumn

Mature size

Vigorous vine 5–7 m; tender — container or greenhouse in cool climates

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

6.0–7.0

Environment

Montane

Native range

Andean South America — Venezuela and Colombia south through Ecuador and Peru to Bolivia, in cool high-elevation cloud forest. ⚠ Invasive in Hawaii and New Zealand.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

1–3 yrs

Growth speed

4–8 m/year — very fast and long-running.

Spacing

300 cm (118 in) apart — about 9 m² (97 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, 3-lobed and densely soft-downy beneath — mollissima means 'very soft', and the felted underside is the character it is named for.

Root system

Shallow and fibrous, spreading widely and rooting from trailing stems.

Fruit description

Oblong yellow fruits 5–12 cm long with a soft downy skin, filled with fragrant orange pulp that is sweeter and less acid than most passionfruit — the curuba of Andean juice stalls.

Propagation

Seed germinates in 2–4 weeks from fresh, scarified seed. Semi-ripe stem cuttings of non-flowering shoots taken in late spring or summer root under cover; layering works too, since trailing stems root where they touch.

Pollination

Pollinated in its native Andes chiefly by long-billed hummingbirds matched to the long floral tube; in cultivation elsewhere hand-pollination is routinely used to get a dependable crop.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.