Description
Botanical Name: Passiflora lutea
Common Name: Yellow Passionflower, Yellow Passionvine, Eastern Yellow Passionflower, Dwarf Passionflower, Hardy Yellow Passionflower
Description: This is another one of Florida’s gorgeous native passionflower vines.
Yellow passionflower is a perennial, herbaceous vine in the Passifloraceae family. This is hardiest of the passionflower vines. Its native habitat is in woodlands, forests, thickets, and maritime forests. Tendrils along the stem allow the vine to quickly climb to 15-20 feet in height without damaging any trellises or structures. It can also be used as a groundcover. Plant this vine in fertile, moist, well-drained soils in sun, part sun, or part shade. Is a good candidate for your rain garden. It is much better behaved in the garden than Passiflora incarnata.
The bright green leaves are wider than they are long and softly lobed in three parts. The summer leaves can be subtly variegated with silver. The leaves turn an attractive yellow in fall. The fragrant flowers are small, about 1 inch or less across, pale greenish-yellow to off-white, blooming in summer to fall. The flowers are followed by small purple or black berries. The flowers are edible, they can be used in salads, or eaten raw, also can be cooked. The berries are edible but not too tasty.
This vine is an important wildlife plant, attracting bees, butterflies, birds, and mammals while being resistant to damage by deer. The pollen of this species is the only known larval foodstuff of the Passionflower Bee, Anthemurgus passiflorae (RESLIT 2840). Host plant for Julia, Mexican, and Gulf fritillaries butterflies, and Zebra and Crimson-patch longwing butterflies. The young tendrils are eaten by wild turkey.
Not salt tolerant of inundation by salty or brackish water. Some tolerance to salty wind but not direct salt spray.
This plant in 1-gallon containers is 5 – 12 inches tall.
Plant Lore: The Cherokee used a compound infusion of the root to treat boils. They also gave an infusion of root to babies to aid in weaning, and a warm infusion of beaten root dropped into the ear for earache. The Cherokee used parboiled leaves and the fruit as a food source. The fruits have been used to make ink.
Florida Hardiness Zones 8 – 10
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