Mar 12 2009
A Flower by Any Other Name
We have many passion flower vines in our yard. They thrive in the heat and sandy soil. Caterpillars and then butterflies love them. The plants produce edible fruit as well. All plusses.
While the flower itself is not what I would describe as beautiful, it is unique and interesting.
On the negative side we have the fact that the plant is invasive. It spreads whether you want it to or not. Because my wife and I do not garden-by-numbers and insist on having vegetation resembling well-placed and groomed outdoor furnishings, that isn’t a big deal. ‘Let the wild go a little wild’ is one of my mottos.
And then there is the name. Passion flower. I’d like it if the connotations were about human passion. But no. Here’s the Wikipedia etymology -
The “Passion” in “passion flower” does not refer to sex and love however, but to the passion of Jesus Christ. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish Christian missionaries adopted the unique physical structures of this plant, particularly the numbers of its various flower parts, as symbols of the last days of Jesus Christ and especially the Crucifixion.
What?
Maybe I’ll rename the specimens in our yard. “Wild purples” maybe. Or “Butterfly paradise.” Yah, I like that last one. Butterflies are real. And I love them.
