Today’s Plant of the day is the Passion flower. 10 passion flower facts:
Passion flowers belong to the genus Passiflora.
There are about 500 species of them with a wide range of variations in the flowers and leaves. They are mostly tendril-bearing vines, but some are shrubs or trees.
Most are native to Mexico, Central America, the United States and South America, but some are found in Southeast Asia and Oceania.
They are often grown in butterfly farms, as many species of Butterfly feed on them.
The plant has been used in medicines, to relieve anxiety, insomnia, pain, epilepsy and high blood pressure.
The Victorians loved them and created many cultivars and hybrids.
Spanish missionaries in the 15th and 16th centuries used them to illustrate aspects of the story of Christ’s crucifixion, and it was they who gave them the name passion flower, after the passion of Christ. The symbolism includes: The ten petals and sepals represent the ten faithful apostles; The tendrils represent the whips used in the flagellation of Christ; The flower's radial filaments represent the crown of thorns.
Names for the flower in other languages reflect this: Spanish: espina de Cristo ('thorn of Christ'); and old German names include Christus-Krone ('Christ's crown'), Christus-Strauss ('Christ's bouquet') and Dorn-Krone ('crown of thorns').
Outside the Christian religion, the flowers are often known as “Clock flower/plant”. This is the case in Japan, Greece and Israel. In Hawaii, they focus on the tendrils and call the flower liliko, where the element “li” means a string for tying fabric together.
In India, it is known as Krishnakamala because its dark violet blue colour resembles Bhagwan Krishna.
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