Passion Flower Vine

The passion flower vine is botanically called the Passiflora incarnata, and is the plant which blooms the medically accepted passion flower. This vine is amongst one of the most popular flowering plants from the Passifloraceae family, and is very well-known for its fruit as well, also called the "passion fruit". A few of these species are native to the United States of America, and others were found in South America, Asia and China. There are many other names given to this exotic garden vine, and they are Apricot vine, Maypop, Purple Passion flower, Passionsblume and Passion Vine. The passion flower vine is a perennial climbing vine which has herbaceous shoots and a woody stem. It grows up to almost 10 meters in length, and bears beautiful flowers and fruits. Find out some more about this graceful vine, from the paragraphs below.

Passion Flower Vine: Flowers and Fruits

As mentioned earlier, the passion flower vine is a long perennial vine and has a very attractive visual appeal. Even though this vine is very widely distributed throughout different parts of the world, it is very popularly known for the most commonly used passion flowers, the Blue Passion Flower (P. caerulea) and the Purple Passion Vine. These flowers are very rich in their color and have distinct parts. They consist of five white petals, and five colorful sepals which can vary. The corona of this flower resembles the crown of thorns that was worn by Jesus Christ at the time of crucifixion, and thus it got its name.

The passion flower vine fruit is known to be a slightly elongated or round fruit that is edible and is commonly called passion fruit. It is usually 2 to 8 inches long, but the size can vary depending on the species of the passion flower vine. The passion fruit is a purple colored fruit which usually wrinkles while ripening. It consists of passion flower vine seeds inside it, which are very healthy and have medicinal properties, thus popularly used in herbal medicine. Just like the flowers, there are innumerable species of fruits which are found and are also used in types of dishes to contribute to a healthy diet.

Passion Flower Vine Uses

Even though the passion flower vine is a delicate climber, there are many things for which it is very effectively used for. The parts that are made use of are, the flowers, leaves and the stems of this vine. The first use of passion flower extract is that it can be used as medication for a number of diseases, and the second most common uses is that it is used in landscaping and gardening to improve the aesthetic value of your outdoors.

As one of the medicinal herbs, it can be used in the form of passion flower tea, passion flower vine extracts, infusions and tinctures. To start with the medical uses of this vine, it can be used as; herbal sedative, anxiolytic, and an hypnotic drug (rarely used), in diseases like neuralgia, hysteria, seizures, and many physiologic disorders as a calming herb. The vine can also be used to relieve patients suffering from hypertension and sometimes for those suffering from congestive heart failure syndrome.

The other use of this lovely passion flower vine is to use it in landscaping and decorating your outdoors. This is because a full-grown vine with bright purple flowers and fruits looks like a very well put streamer on the trees, fences and other supports. The leaves and the stem of the vine are lush green in color, and the fruits are rich purple, which make the vine look like nature's way of decoration. But of course, like any other garden plant, passion flower vine care is also important to help it survive.

With this great information on the passion flower vine, I am sure you are ready to try out the benefits of this rich and useful vine.