USVI native plant
Passiflora foetida
a guest blog by LeAnn Horsford
Passiflora foetida L., also commonly known as running pop, love-in-a-mist, wild water lemon, and stinking passionflower, is a vine that is native to the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. It has a round and hairy stem with large, hairy leaves that have three to five lobes and produce cyanide. When leaves and stems are crushed, an unpleasant odor is emitted hence the nickname “stinking passionflower”. P. foetida produces white flowers with purple streaks.
Fruits follow fertile flowers, and the fruits are surrounded by bracts. Young fruits are green, toxic, and produce cyanide. Ripe fruits are red or orange in color and contain black seeds surrounded by pulp. This plant can grow up to 6 meters tall and to grow, it requires full sunlight, lots of water, and fertile soil. It is commonly found on roadsides, in disturbed or waste sites, forests, woodlands, plantation crops, etc.
References
NParks: Passiflora foetida. National Parks Board. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2022, from https://www.nparks.gov.sg/florafaunaweb/flora/1/4/1466
Weeds of Australia - fact sheet. Passiflora foetida. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2022, from https://keyserver.lucidcentral.org/weeds/data/media/Html/passiflora_foetida.htm