Passiflora foetida L.

The Chinese material is rather uniform, and Killip’s infraspecific taxonomy (loc. cit. under genus heading) would key to Passiflora foetida var. hispida (Candolle ex Triana & Planchon) Killip ex Gleason.

Annual or rarely perennial herbaceous tendril climber. Stem and branches softly hispid. Leaves with 2-4 cm long, hispid, glandless petiole; lamina membranous, broad ovate, cordate or subcordate, 4-7 cm long, 3-5 cm broad, shallowly 3-lobed, lobes acute, with ciliate margins; stipules falcate, tripinnatisect, with gland tipped segments. Flowers solitary axillary, on up to 4 cm long peduncle, large with obnoxious odour, 4-6 cm across; bracts deeply tripinnatisect, segments filiform, gland tipped; hypanthium urceolate. Sepals 5, oblong, 2-2.5 cm long, white within, pale green without. Petals 5, oblong, as long as sepals, obtuse, mucronate, white. Corona multiseriate, purple to bluish purple. Stamens 5; anthers greenish yellow, c. 5 mm long. Ovary globose, somewhat pilose; styles clavate. Fruit ovoid-globose, c. 2 cm in diameter, orange yellow, glabrescent, enclosed by enlarged bracts.

Herbaceous vines, foul smelling. Stem slender, striate, spreading pubescent. Stipules partly clasping, deeply parted, glandular pilose; petiole 2-6 cm, without glands, pubescent, indumentum dense, spreading, glandular pilose; leaf blade broadly ovate to oblong-ovate, (3-)4.5-13 × (2.5-)4-12 cm, membranous, glandular ciliate, abaxially pubescent with small nectaries in distal part, adaxially sericeous, mixed with occasional glandular hairs, base cordate, 3-lobed or unlobed, margin irregularly undulate, apex acute. Inflorescence reduced to a single flower, opposite tendril; bracts 3, 2- or 3(or 4)-pinnatifid; lobes threadlike, glandular pilose apically. Flowers white or light purple with white spots or lines, 2-3 cm in diam. Sepals ca. 1.5 cm, awned. Petals ca. 1.5 cm. Corona 3-5-seriate, filamentous, two outer series ca. 1 cm, inner three series 1-2.5 mm; operculum 1-1.5 mm, membranous; disk cupular, 1-2 mm high; androgynophore 5-7 mm tall. Stamens coherent at base, flat; anthers oblong, ca. 4 mm. Ovary shortly stipitate, ellipsoid, ca. 6 mm, glabrous; styles 3(or 4), 5-6 mm; stigmas capitate. Berry orange or orange-red, ovoid-globose, 2-3 cm in diam., glabrous. Seeds many, light brown to black, elliptic, 3-4 mm. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Apr-May of next year. 2n = 20.

Distribution: A native of tropical and South America, now naturalized in Tropical Africa, Pakistan, India, Ceylon, South-East Asia and China.

Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, Yunnan [native to the West Indies and N South America].

Fl.Per.: July-August.

Naturalized weed, grassy slopes, forest margins, roadsides, riverine beaches, occasionally cultivated; 100-1200 m.

Dysosmia foetida (Linnaeus) M. Roemer; Granadilla foetida (Linnaeus) Gaertner; Passiflora foetida var. hispida (Candolle ex Triana & Planchon) Killip; P. hispida Candolle ex Triana & Planchon; Tripsilina foetida (Linnaeus) Rafinesque.