PASSIFLORACEAE

the passion-flower family within the order Violales, containing about 20 genera and 600 species of herbaceous or woody vines, shrubs, and trees, mostly of warm regions. The family is most highly developed in the tropical Americas and in Africa. The largest genus in the order is Passiflora, the passion-flower (q.v.) genus, with about 400 species, many of which are highly prized for their showy, unusual flowers. Many members of the family climb by means of tendrils borne in the leaf-axil, though others are erect trees or shrubs. The leaves are alternate and stipulate. Other characteristics include the presence of radially symmetrical male, female, or bisexual flowers with three to five sepals, petals, and stamens (male pollen-producing structures). The flowers usually have a one-chambered, superior ovary (i.e., the female structure positioned above the attachment point of the other flower parts) composed of three to five carpels (ovule-bearing segments) with indefinitely numerous ovules attached to the inner ovary walls. Nearly all species have seeds that bear a fleshy appendage called an aril. The flower is also distinctive in most species in having a gynophore or androphore, a pedestal-like structure in the centre of the flower that carries the reproductive parts of both sexes. In the passion-flower family there is an additional whorl of tendrillike structures in the flower called the corona. The fruits are capsules or berries. Many Passiflora species produce edible fruits, such as the giant granadilla (P. quadrangularis); sweet calabash, sweet cup, or pomme d'or (P. maliformis); the yellow granadilla, or belle apple (P. laurifolia); and the purple granadilla (P. edulis). The only other significant genus in the family is Adenia, with about 90 species found in Africa and tropical Asia. The 35 members of the genus Tryphostemma are restricted to tropical and southern Africa.