Passiflora seemanni | The Italian Collection of Maurizio Vecchia

Passiflora seemanni, information, classification, temperatures. etymology of Passiflora seemanni. Discover the Italian Passiflora Collection by Maurizio Vecchia.

Passiflora seemanni | The Italian Collection of Maurizio Vecchia

Systematics (J. Macdougal et al., 2004)

SUBGENUS: passiflora
SUPERSECTION: laurifolia
SERIES: tilifolia


GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OR ORIGIN:

Panama and Northwest Colombia.


MINIMUM TEMPERATURE: 10 °C


IDEAL MINIMUM TEMPERATURE: 12 °C


SYNONYMS:

P. orbifolia Planch. & Linden


ETYMOLOGY:

Dedicated to the German botanist Berthold Carl Seemann (1825 - 1871).
He attended Kew Garden and participated in scientific expeditions to South America.


NOTES:

Chromosomes: n=9, 2n=18 


PHOTOGALLERY:


DESCRIPTION:

 It comes from the mountainous areas of Panama and neighbouring regions, where it lives at low altitudes.

The various parts of this passionflower are of a very particular shade of green: a light blue tinge differentiates it from the more common and widespread one.

It has invested much imagination in the shape of its leaves, which are all different: some are whole, while others are bilobate and asymmetrical, with a smaller, lateral lobe appearing next to the central lobe. Even when all 3 typical lobes are present, rest assured that one of the lateral lobes will be smaller and different in shape. Only in well-grown specimens does the disorder decrease. Its leaves, when trilobate and symmetrical, are 13 cm in length and 15 cm in width. Two, very evident pedunculated glands are positioned on the petiole near the leaf blade.

The trailing flowers, with a diameter of about 10 cm, are in rich shades from pink to violet, to intense blue; the corona of filaments is large and wavy, the sepals are white with purple-pink tinges at the edges, while the petals are deep purple-pink, retroflexed and curled back on themselves in a disordered way. The corona is made up of two sets of filaments. The outermost one, which is sparse, is placed perpendicular to the innermost one, which is dense and cup-shaped. The filaments are coloured with white, blue and violet bands alternating from the base to the apex.

The fruit is ovoid and measures about 5 cm in diameter.

P. seemannii is a delicate plant and not easy to grow: it does not tolerate temperatures below 10°C, so it should be kept in a pot and sheltered during the winter period. It can be propagated by seed or by cuttings.