Passiflora air à l'italien | The Italian Collection of Maurizio Vecchia

DESCRIPTION:

P. x belotii (P. 'Empress Eugenia') is an ancient still very widespread hybrid, made in 1849, and was obtained by crossing the P. alata with P. caerulea. I and other hybridizers tried to imitate ancient crosses to see the results.
One of these is the P. 'Air à L'Italien'.
Unlike other similar hybrids, I used as mother the P. alata 'Linhares', a particular form, from the smallest flower, harvested and intensely perfumed.
P. 'Air à L'Italien' has darker colourations than P. x belotii. The corolla, about 8 cm in diameter, is of light violet to dark pink colour both in the petals and in the sepals.  The latter are bordered with green and end with a small spur.
The crown is complex, formed by several series of filaments. Very short and in three series, with white base and dark apex, central. Then follow two large and showy twin crowns. The filaments have a dark purple base for one third of their length. It follows a central white and violet with alternating bands. They end in intense violet with apex that turns to white. The flower is rich and elegant.
The leaves, trilobate and robust, are supported by a petiole provided by two pairs of glands and provided at the base by two showy reniform stiples.
I believe this hybrid is sterile because all my attempts at pollination have failed. On the other hand, P. x belotii is also decidedly sterile.
It should not be surprising if similar crosses lead to different results. I have had different hybrids from two seeds of the same cross and from the same fruit. The mixing of genes is random, I think.
I chose this name 'Air à l'Italien' because it is an Italian re-edition of the P. x belotii. I have taken reference to a magnificent composition for flute by George Philip Telemann (1681-1767), the Suite in A minor for flute and strings. Air à l'Italien is the third movement and it’s a very sweet music, like the perfume of this flower.