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Passion Flower
The passion flower is a perennial woody vine, which means that it will grow back every
year if given the proper care. They are mostly from tropical America, but there are also a
few species that originated in the Polynesian Islands and Asia. This flower, which is in
the Passiflora family, got its name in the 16th century when Christian missionaries went to
South America and found the plant that they felt was an omen for their work.
The missionaries called this flower the passion because, to them, it symbolized the death
of Jesus Christ. The five petals and sepals on the flower, which look quite similar, were
symbolizing the disciples (omitting Judas and Peter). The plant has a double row of
filaments, also known as the corona, which represents the crown of thorns that Christ
wore before the crucifixion. And finally the flowers five stamens and their three different
spreading styles with their flattened heads represent the wounds and the nails. The
tendrils on the vines symbolize the whips used to lash Christ.
Passion flowers should be planted close to a wall or fence in beds that are dry and that
face the south. They hate having wet or cold roots and generally love being in the sun. If
you decide to plant your flower in a pot, a clay pot works best with broken bits of pot and
sharp sand situated at the bottom.
Around forty different types of plant in the Passiflora family produce passion fruit that is
edible. Of these forty, about ten of these produce fruit that can be grown as food crops,
but most of the plants have fruit that is soft and does not travel or keep well. For the
most part though, until the fruit is ripe and fully mature, one should not try to eat the
passion fruit as immature fruit and rind can be poisonous.
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