Passiflora pittieri | The Italian Collection of Maurizio Vecchia

DESCRIPTION:

 I have seen the flower of this species only once. At Kew Gardens it had climbed very high along the supports prepared for it and for other species. It was not easy to photograph the flower from such a distance, but I managed to do so and present it here. I have also grown small seedlings raised from seed.

Passiflora pittieri belongs to the subgenus Astrophea, section Capreolata. It was described in 1897 and dedicated to the Swiss-born Costa Rican botanist Henri François Pittier, a scholar of Central American flora. It is a small tree or vigorous shrub native to the tropical rainforests of Central and South America, where it grows from Guatemala to Panama in lush environments with consistently high humidity.

The habit is elegant and vigorous, with semi-woody stems and strong tendrils that appear only on young growth. The leaves are broad, glossy and entire, deep green in colour and marked by prominent veins. The flowers are large, white, and adorned with a corona of sturdy filaments in orange or golden-yellow that stand out against the pale corolla.

In its natural habitat it produces green ovoid fruits that turn yellowish when mature. In cultivation it requires fully tropical conditions, with temperatures between 15 and 30 °C, high humidity and good light, in soil that remains moist but well drained. In mild climates it can be grown outdoors only during the warm season, provided it is sheltered from wind and direct sun during the hottest hours of the day.