regnum-plantae:

Passiflora vitifolia, Passifloraceae

A few days ago I went to the beautiful Winter Gardens here in Glasgow to see what was blooming there under glass in this period, the winner to me was the perfumed passionflower with its large, scented, scarlet flowers. Who lives in warmer, subtropical and tropical areas, especially in the Americas, Asia, and Oceania, is probably quite accustomed to a great variety of shapes and colours within this genus -there are almost 500 species of Passiflora- but coming from northern Italy I am mostly used to see the blue flowers of P. Caerulea, one of the only species which, given some protection, is hardy enough to make it through winter outdoors. The perfumed passionflower, called P. vitifolia due to the vague resemblance of its leaves to those of the grapevine, is not hardy at all and was happily climbing around the hot water pipes which heath the glasshouse. A gardener I asked for information to explained this plant was brought over as cuttings from the Botanic Gardens and had rapidly grown from a few cm to several meters long in just a few years. 

Although other passionflower species have recorded medicinal properties, I couldn’t find much about how and if this plant has traditionally been used in its native southern Central America and northern South America. However, in northern India, where it has been introduced, the poulticed leaves are applied externally to treat cutaneous infections, while the flowers are diuretic. It is also one of those species which bear edible fruits -the most popular of them is probably the

maracujá, from P. edulis- the size of an egg and generally looking like a small watermelon.