Corkystem Passionvine

Description

Botanical Name: Passiflora suberosa

Common Name: Corkystem Passionvine, Devil’s Pumpkin, Indigo Berry

Description: Super cool native Passionvine we should all have in our gardens. Even though this doesn’t bloom the beautiful, large, very colorful alien-looking flowers that other Passionvines have, it is still very much worth growing and beautiful in its own way. It does, however, bloom beautiful, small, alien-looking greenish/yellowish flowers. By “small,” I mean they’re only about the size of a quarter. It’s the host plant for these butterflies: Zebra Longwing (Heliconius charitonius); Gulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae); and Julia (Dryas iulia). Is pollinated by bees. Birds and other critters like to eat the fruit. It is a spreading evergreen perennial vine with alternate entire or three-lobed leaves and small, inconspicuous greenish/yellowish flowers. Easy to cultivate, likes sun, part sun, or part shade and well-drained soils. Thrives in gardens. Makes an attractive groundcover, or can be trained on a trellis or up a tree. May require pruning in small spaces. One of the premier larval host plants for any butterfly garden. Flowers attract bees and other pollinators. Quickly grows to about 15′. Blooms small, inconspicuous greenish flowers almost all year round. Grows in moist to dry, well-drained soils. Its natural habitat in Florida is Pine rocklands, pinelands, hammocks, coastal uplands, disturbed areas. Very drought tolerant once established. Purple-black berries are edible.

Not salt tolerant of inundation by salty or brackish water. Moderately tolerant of salty wind and may get some salt spray.

Plant Lore: An interesting characteristic of P. suberosa is the variable shape of its leaves. From lobed to lanceolate, broad to narrow, small to large, all these different-shaped leaves are very often all found on a single plant.

This plant in 1-gallon containers is 8-12″ tall.

Florida Hardiness Zones 9 – 11 / East Gulf Coastal Plains Ecoregion