Passiflora tulae Urb.
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro. 2005. Vines and climbing plants of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 51: 1-483.
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Family
Passifloraceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Description - Slightly woody vine that climbs by means of tendrils and attains 4-5 m in length. Stems slender, angular, green or mulberry-colored, striate, glabrous or puberulent on the younger portions. Leaves alternate, coriaceous, semicircular or semielliptical, sometimes in the form of a boomerang, 3-8 x 2.5-9 cm, with three main veins that are borne from the base, the apex more or less truncate, with two or three rounded lobes, the base rounded, the margins sinuate; upper surface dark green, shiny, glabrous, with the veins sunken; lower surface pale green, dull, puberulent, with prominent venation, with a row of circular glands on each side of the midvein; petioles 1.5-3 cm long, cylindrical, smooth, not glandular; tendrils axillary, simple, longer than the leaves. Flowers solitary or in pairs on an axillary peduncle, 3-5 cm long; sepals 5, oblong, 3-4 x 0.7 cm, pink-violet; petals ca. 3 cm long, oblong, of the same color as the sepals; corona tubular, orange, ca. 1 .5 cm long; gynophore ca. 3 cm long. Fruit a globose or ellipsoid berry, green, 1-2 cm long, with the sepals persistent at the base.
Phenology - Flowering from December to April and fruiting from February to June.
Conservation Status - Endemic to Puerto Rico, not very common.
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Common Names
tagua-tagua serrana, flor de pasión