1 g. Purple Passion Fruit seeds, Passionflower, Passiflora edulis, China
Passiflora edulis is a semi-tropical vine species of passion flower that is native to South America and sports large, wildly tropical-looking purple and white flowers. It is commercially cultivated in many tropical and subtropical areas such as Hawaii for its sweet, seedy fruit, commonly called passion fruit. The fruit is a pepo, actually a type of berry, mostly oval, dark purple at maturity, with a soft to firm, juicy interior filled with numerous black seeds. The fruit is both eaten and juiced; the juice is often added to other fruit juices to enhance aroma and flavor.
Prefers a frost-free location. Cover the plant if a frost is imminent. Easy to grow. Great for an arbor or overhang. Bees and butterflies love the flowers, especially giant carpenter bees.
This is the only species that the Gulf Fritillary butterflies will use as a breeding ground. Their orange and black caterpillars eat the leaves before cocoon time.
My own Bay Area passionflower plant supports a a family of carpenter bees and a butterfly colony of about 20-25 orange and silver butterflies at peak who also feed on the many nectar plants here, such as lavender and salvia. The butterflies just flutter and flirt, flutter and flirt, flutter and flirt, eat and repeat... all day long!