- The origin of the name
- The main growing areas of passion fruit
- Cultivate passion fruit yourself in a pot
- tips and tricks
The delicious passion fruit is the fruit of the passion flower, which is also valued as a flowering plant because of its eye-catching flowers. The various species of the fruit plant, also known as passion fruit, originally come from Australia, South and Central America.
The origin of the name
The names of passion flower and passion fruit go back to the discovery of the extraordinary flowers of the passion flower by Jesuits in South America. They believed that they had discovered symbols for the Passion of Christ in the striking blossoms and their shape and colour. Individual components of the flower such as pistils, aureoles and anthers are said to be symbolic of cross nails, stigmata and the crown of thorns.
The main growing areas of passion fruit
The genus of passion flowers (Passiflora) includes more than 530 different plant species worldwide. Most of these are originally from Central and South America, but certain species are also native to Southeast Asian countries and the South Pacific region. Nowadays, passion fruit is used economically in many countries with a tropical climate. These include, for example:
- Africa
- India
- Australia
- South America
Most of the fruit sold in stores in this country comes from Kenya, South Africa and Sri Lanka. The fruits are still more exotic on the fruit shelf, but the passion fruit juice obtained from the yellow passion fruit has been contained in many fruit juices for decades. This may also be due to the fact that yellow passion fruit produces a very refreshing juice, but tastes less than the purple colored passion fruit.
Cultivate passion fruit yourself in a pot
Since passion flowers come from tropical climates, they are not frost hardy and do not tolerate temperatures well below 10 degrees Celsius. The sensitive climbing plants can therefore only be grown as houseplants or as potted plants for the balcony and terrace that overwinter in the house. Seeds for various passion flower species can be obtained from specialist seed shops. The seeds of purchased fruits are usually eaten together with the pulp surrounding them. If the seeds are to be used for sowing in a pot, the pulp must first be removed so that the seeds do not become moldy during the germination phase.
tips and tricks
The rumor persists that particularly shriveled passion fruits are also particularly tasty and ripe. However, plump fruits can also be fully ripe and particularly shriveled fruits are sometimes overripe and no longer particularly refreshing.
WK