Passiflora tulae Urb.

• Title

  Passiflora tulae Urb.

• Authors

  Nathaniel Lord Britton, Frances W. Horne

• Scientific Name

  Passiflora tulae Urb.

• Description

  Flora Borinqueña Passiflora Tulae Porto Rico Passion-flower Family Passifloraceae Passion-flower Family Passiflora Tulae Urban, Symbolae Antillanae 1: 374. 1899. A partly woody vine, endemic in Porto Rico forests, mostly inhabiting those of the higher elevations, attractive by its rose-colored flowers with a yellow crown. Doctor Stahl regarded this plant as the same as the Passiflora Murucuja of Linnaeus, a species of Santo Domingo, and Porto Rico, but Professor Urban detected differences which appear to sufficiently characterize our plant as a distinct species, and this view is supported by the recent studies of Mr. E. P. Killip of the Smithsonian Institution. The diminution of Porto Rico forests has made this vine rare. The features of the large genus Passiflora are outlined with our description of Passiflora foetida. Passiflora Tulae (dedicated to Gertrude Krug, daughter of Leopold Krug, formerly German consul at Mayaguez), is a smooth vine, about 6 meters long or longer, the young branches minutely hairy. The thin leaves from 4 to 10 centimeters long, and mostly about as broad as long, are 3-nerved, with a rounded base and a shallowly, or sometimes deeply, 2-lobed, or 3-lobed apex; the leafstalks are from 1 to 3 centimeters long. The flowers are solitary, or 2 together, on stalks from 2 to 5 centimeters long; they are without any involucre; the sepals and petals, about 4 centimeters long, are narrowly oblong, in color rose; the yellow crown is about one-half as long as the sepals and petals. The oval, or nearly globular berry is about 15 millimeters in diameter.