Purple Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata)

Purple passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) is a wonderful vine, native to the southern United States. It has traditionally had many uses: Its fruits are known as "Maypops" or passionfruit. Its fragrant flowers have been used for teas and tinctures. The plant is also a primary food source and host plant for the native Gulf Fritillary Butterfly caterpillar (Agraulis vanillae). 

It is truly an incredible edition to polinator gardens, edible gardens, or to cover a fence or trellis. Bees have been observed becoming "intoxicated" by the nectar when visiting the flowers. I have also observed other butterflies (besides the Gulf Fritillary) and hummingbirds regularly visiting the blooms. If given nothing to climb, it will sprawl out on the ground very rapidly, but it will readily climb any trellis or fence. The Gulf Fritillary caterpillars will decimate the leaves, keeping the vine in check. However, I have noticed the caterpillars seem to come toward the middle to end of summer, giving the vine plenty of time to develop flowers and fruit for other critters (or humans) to enjoy.

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