FoI
Giant Granadilla
Share Foto info
Giant Granadilla
P Introduced Photo: Anil Thakur
Common name: Giant Granadilla, Parcha, Timun Belanda, Giant Tumbo
Botanical name: Passiflora quadrangularis    Family: Passifloraceae (Passion flower family)
Synonyms: Granadilla quadrangularis, Passiflora grandiflora

Giant Granadilla is a slightly woody or herbaceous vine. The branches are hairless, attaining 3-5 m in length and the plant climbs by means of in leaf-axils tendrils. The stems are trigonal or four-edged in shape and the angles are winged, becoming cylindrical as they mature. The leaves are alternate and hairless, papery or membranaceous. The leaves are 10-20 x 8-15 cm and are broadly elliptical or broadly ovate in shape, with an tapering tip. Leaf-stalks are 2-5 cm long. Flowers are borne singly, drooping, in leaf-axils and subtended by a persistent involucre of three ovate bracts that are 3-5 cm long. The sepals are ovate or oblong-ovate, 3-4 cm long, white, violet, or pink on the inner surface and green outside. Petals are oblong-ovate to oblong-lanceshaped, white with a pink tinge and 3-4.5 cm long. The corona is in many series. The segments of the corona are thread-like and as long as the sepals, with red-violet and white bands at the base, blue in the middle and with numerous pink-blue spots above the middle. The androgynophore is thick, with five stamens and an ovoid ovary. The flower-cluster-stalk is 1.5-3 cm long and trigonal. The fruit is a green, fleshy berry that has an oblong-ovoid shape, is 2-3 x 1.2-1.5 cm in size and has three longitudinal furrows. Giant Granadilla is native to Colombia to Brazil, cultivated elsewhere.

Identification credit: Anil Thakur Photographed in cultivation in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh.

• Is this flower misidentified? If yes,