SUBGENUS: passiflora
SUPERSECTION: stipulata
SECTION: dysosmia
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OR ORIGIN:
Lower California (Arizona) and northwestern Mexico.
MINIMUM TEMPERATURE: 7 °C
IDEAL MINIMUM TEMPERATURE: 12 °C
SYNONYMS: P. foetida var. arida Mast. & Rose, P. foetita var. arizonica Killip.
ETYMOLOGY: From the Latin aridus referred to the geographic areas with dry and dry climate in which it lives.
DESCRIPTION:
The seeds are vaguely trapezoidal (up to 0.5 cm long and 0.25 cm wide) with a flat base and rough surface. They maintain their vitality for a long time and germinate easily.The fruits, ovoid, yellow green when ripe are edible and have a good taste.
The sepals are slightly keeled on the outside and very light green in colour.
The flowers, of about 4-5 cm diameter, are constituted by a white corolla and a tricolour crown: purple in the centre, white in the central part and light pink with hints of alternate bands in the terminal part.
The leaves are normally trilobed with elongated central lobe and bilobed lateral lobes. They measure up to 8 cm in length and 6 cm in width.
P. arida has had to adapt to a desert, torrid and particularly hostile environment. For this reason the whole plant, but in particular the leaves, is covered by a thick tomentosity, a soft 'velvet' useful to reduce water loss and protect from the sun’s rays.
However, membership of this group is therefore easy to understand even by a superficial observation, but the latter characteristic is absent.
Its morphological characteristics, in fact, differ from the evident uniformity of the group of foetideae for some peculiarities: larger flower, tri-pentalobate leaves, tricolor crown, absence of the tiny sticky glands on the hairs.
Killip, in his fundamental text 'The American Species of Passifloraceae', had brought together all these similar species under the name of P. foetida, listing about fifty varieties. P. arida, however, was removed from the name of P. foetida var. arida, Kept only as a synonym, because considered a separate species.
The passiflore assigned to the section Dysosmia of the subgenus Passiflora have unmistakable characteristics. They have finely jagged bracts (pennatids), are normally tomentose in all their parts and, if rubbed, give off a characteristic bitter smell. The thick hair is provided with small glands containing a sticky liquid on which sometimes remain stuck the midges.