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Old 04-08-2011, 10:02 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
[email protected] nmm1@cam.ac.uk is offline
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Default Passion flower fruit

In article ,
Chris Hogg wrote:
On Thu, 04 Aug 2011 21:58:23 +0200, David in Normandy
wrote:

They are worth growing just for the fruit! We've got an ornamental
passion flower growing up the old barn and noticed a nice ripe fruit
today. Golden colour and soft, the size of a hen's egg. The seeds were
red and sweet and came away easily in a clump away from the pod; very
tasty. Time for more to ripen yet. :-) I bet they'd go well with plain
vanilla ice cream.


Many species of passion flower have edible fruit. Vanderplank lists
about twenty in his book on PF's. Some are tastier than others. Best
is P. edulis (The Purple Passion Fruit), grown commercially for its
fruit, as are P. quadrangularis (The Giant Granadilla) and P.
ligularis (The Sweet Granadilla). He doesn't think too much of the
only passion flower reasonably hardy in the UK (I know you're in
Normandy, but the same may apply), P. caerulea, describing it as
'insipid, slightly blackberry flavoured'. Do you know what sort you
have? If not, can you post a picture somewhere (flowers, fruit and
leaves)?


Nor do I. He's a little unfair about it, but only a little.
My P. incarnata has never set fruit, unfortunately.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.