Passiflora murucuja L.
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Authority
Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.
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Family
Passifloraceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - We have adopted the Santo Domingo aboriginal name of this kind of Passion-flower, inasmuch as neither English nor Spanish names are recorded for it. The plant is frequent in Haiti and Santo Domingo, whence it was made known to Linnaeus; it is rare and local in Porto Rico, and has only in recent years been known in this island, with certainty, from specimens collected by Professor F. L. Stevens near Quebradillas in 1913, and by Professor H. T. Cowles between Lares and Arecibo in 1925. Doctor Stahl erroneously recorded it as Porto Rican, however, in his "Estudios para la Flora de Puerto Rico", published in 1886, mistaking for it, the endemic Passiflora Tulae, of our mountain forests, as pointed out by professor Urban in 1899, a different, although related species. The genus Passiflora is well represented in Porto Rico, for besides the one here illustrated, 9 other species occur in the wild state and 2, large-flowered kinds are commonly planted for ornament and for their edible fruit. We give an account of the genus with our description of Passiflora foetida. Passiflora Murucuja is a slender, smooth, climbing vine, attaining a length of a meter or more. Its leaves are of unusual form, being much wider than long, and 2-lobed; they are stalked, thin, 3-nerved, finely netted-veined, from 2.5 to 8 centimeters wide and from 1 to 3.5 centimeters long, the lobes rounded or often notched; there is a very slender, coiled tendril at the base of each leaf. The flowers are solitary, on stalks 2 or 3 centimeters long; the oblong to lanceolate red sepals are about 3 centimeters long, the petals, also red and oblong, are about one-half as long as the sepals. The fruit is a globose or ellipsoid, smooth berry from 1 to 2 centimeters in diameter, black when ripe.
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Discussion
Murucuja Passion-flower Family Passiflora Murucuja Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 957. 1753.