28/06/2025
Good morning from F.N.E.! Back again with another awesome nature spotlight, and this one really is a heavy hitter. Today we bring you the Purple Passion Flower or Passiflora Incarnata! This is one of our very proud Florida native plants with a mountain of wonderful uses!
There are other varieties of Passionflower out there, some of which are actually on their way to becoming invasive, such as the common passion fruit or passiflora edulis. Of which is the variety that bares the most delicious fruit. Passionfruit isn’t quite like a lot of other fruits; the fruit has a hard outer skin and is filled with a mucus-like jelly with small black seeds suspended within it. It doesn’t sound appetizing, but rest assured, if you’ve ever had passionfruit flavored anything, the real deal is so much better! While you can’t eat them like a traditional fleshy fruit, the jelly can be used to make delicious reductions and sauces that go great in baked treats, or paired with fish and pork! The seeds are delicious too, and can be prepared much like pumpkin seeds by lightly toasting them! While the fruit of passiflora incarnata is still edible, it’s worth noting that it isn’t as tasty. It is possible however, that with some years of care and regular harvest the flavor may develop to become more enjoyable, as is the case with other native berries and fruits we’ve personally cultivated at home.
These extremely beautiful flowers attract humans and pollinators alike from bees to hummingbirds; they’re an essential part of our ecosystem!
These perennial vines grow very well here in Florida, and while they are native here their range encompasses most of the southern United States. They are tolerant of Florida’s many harsh conditions ranging from heavy rain to drought, and although they are not fans of the cold, they usually handle whatever cold weather we bare here just fine. This makes them an excellent choice for gardens and landscapes alike! The flowers are like something from another planet, and the leaves encompass a broad, palmate formation, making them potentially fantastic shade casters.
Not only are these native pollination stations a potential source of food, but these amazing plants have some pretty significant medicinal properties as well. Modern life has a way of giving us insomnia and anxiety, but rest assured that nature is here to help! Purple passionflower leaves can be harvested and steeped into a delicious tea that can be quite effective for inducing sleep and reducing anxiety! But be warned, they really do work, so make sure you enjoy this beverage before bed and definitely not before operating any kind of machinery or anything else that requires focus and attentiveness! Note that the fruit does not have the same effect, just the leaves.
Stay posted for more awesome facts about the various flora and fauna we observe right here in the land of flowers! No joke, that’s what the name “Florida” means! And for good reason. We’ve spotted this lovely plant on the trail a few times, so be sure to check out our upcoming educational ecotour dates when they become available for the opportunity to see this beautiful plant in all its glory and to enjoy a beautiful day among the nature with good people and good food! What’s not to love about that? See you on the trail! 🥾🌳🌴☀️
(Second picture credit to Rebekah D. Wallace, University of Georgia, Bugwood.org)
