Rainforest Plants - Passion Flower

Family: Passifloraceae

Genus: Passiflora

Species: incarnata, edulis

Common names: Maracuja, passionflower, carkifelek, charkhi felek, maypop, maypop passionflower

General Description: Passion flower is a climbing vine renowned for its beautiful white flowers with purple, blue, or pink calyx crown blooms. This vine is very attractive, sprawling or climbing up, with edible fruits and flowers. It is ten feet to twenty feet long, with alternate leaves.

Location: Passionflower, called maracuja in the Amazon, is indigenous to many tropical and semi-tropical areas - from South America to North America.

Uses: There are over 200 species of Passion Flower vines; the most prevalent species in the Amazon is Passiflora edulis. Indigenous tribes throughout the Amazon have long used Passion Flower leaves for its sedative and pain-relieving properties; the fruit is used as a heart tonic and to calm coughs. Local Amazonians use the leaf tea as a sedative. As an herb used for anxiety, stress, and insomnia for hundreds of years, Passion Flower is considered very safe when taken as directed

The flower is thought to affect the nervous system in several ways. This herb was first investigated scientifically less than one hundred years ago when it was found to possess an analgesic (pain-killing) property and to prevent, without side effects, sleeplessness caused by brain inflammation. This herb is best known as a mild sedative, especially useful for helping to alleviate insomnia and other sleep disorders. Today, it is an ingredient in several sleeping pills. Passion flower may also increase the effects of other drugs and herbals that promote sleepiness.

This strikingly beautiful plant is native to the western hemisphere and is grown in many temperate-climate gardens. Passion Flower vine is attractive on a garden trellis, fence, hanging over a wall or sprawled on a slope. It is popular with gardeners because of its intricate, scented flowers that have an almost plastic-looking appearance. Passion Flower is known historically to have been cultivated in the gardens of Aztec priests and kings