Passiflora L., Sp. Pl. 955. 1753.

Porter-Utley, Kristen, 2014, A revision of Passiflora L. subgenus Decaloba (DC.) Rchb. supersection Cieca (Medik.) J. M. MacDougal & Feuillet (Passifloraceae), PhytoKeys 43, pp. 1-224 : 43

Passiflora L., Sp. Pl. 955. 1753.

Passiflora Lectotype species, designated by N. Britton and A. Brown, 1913, pg. 565: Passiflora incarnata L.

Description.

Herbaceous or woody, perennial (rarely annual or with annual shoots from perennial roots), tendril-climbing vines or lianas, rarely shrubs or small trees lacking tendrils; usually containing cyanogenic glycosides having a cyclopentenoid ring system; glabrous to densely pubescent with simple trichomes, rarely gland-headed. Stems terete to lobed or sharply angled, occasionally with anomalous secondary growth, the shoot apex erect to cernuous. Leaves alternate (very rarely subopposite to opposite), simple (rarely palmately compound), petiolate, often with variously shaped and positioned extrafloral nectary glands on the petiole; laminas unlobed or lobed, often heteroblastic, pinnately to often palmately (rarely pedately) veined, variegated or not, entire to serrate, peltate or not, often bearing small nectaries associated with marginal teeth or indentations, or abaxially submarginal, or abaxial between the major veins. Stipules setaceous or narrowly triangular to foliaceous, persistent or early deciduous, entire to serrate, sometimes the margins with glands, occasionally cleft. Tendrils axillary, simple (rarely compound), representing a modified flower stalk of the central part of the inflorescence, straight, curved, or circinate during development at the shoot apex, rarely with adhesive terminal disks. Inflorescences axillary, bracteate or rarely ebracteate, cymose, the central pedicel developed into a tendril, the peduncle very reduced or usually absent, the pedicels then arising collateral to the tendril (sometimes aborted), solitary or paired; secondary inflorescences may be present as condensed axillary or terminal shoots, determinate or rarely indeterminate; pedicels articulate distal to bracts, the distal portion called the floral stipe; bracts setaceous and scattered to foliaceous or pinnatifid and involucrate, occasionally glandular at margin. Flowers bisexual (sometimes functionally staminate), actinomorphic or rarely the reproductive parts zygomorphic; hypanthium ± flat to campanulate, occasionally the perianth basally connate/adnate into a floral tube; sepals 5 (very rarely 8), quincuncially imbricated (rarely non-overlapping) in the bud, occasionally carinate, sometimes with a subapical projection; petals 5 (very rarely 8) or sometimes wanting, quincuncially imbricated (rarely non-overlapping) in the bud, the same length as or shorter (rarely slightly longer) than the sepals; corona present at the base of the calyx or corolla or adnate to the inside of the floral tube, in 1 to many series of distinct to occasionally connate, short to elongate, often showy filaments or outgrowths, sometimes membranous, the innermost series, called the operculum, often connate at least basally, frequently membranous and shielding the nectary; the limen (extrastaminal nectariferous disk) present as a ring or cup around base of androgynophore (or rarely the ovary if androgynophore absent), or discoid or conical and adnate to the floor of hypanthium. Stamens 5(8 in one species), usually alternate with the petals, borne on an often elongate androgynophore or androgynophore rarely absent; filaments free just below ovary or rarely connate into a tube around ovary; anthers introrse in bud, moving to become extrorse (rarely latrorse) at anthesis, dorsifixed, versatile, dehiscing longitudinally, borne parallel or perpendicular to their filaments; pollen binucleate, 3- to 12-colporate. Carpels 3(-5), connate, ovary superior, unilocular, borne on an often elongate androgynophore (rarely sessile), placentation parietal, anatropous ovules numerous on each placenta; styles distinct, rarely connate near base; stigmas capitate, clavate, reniform, or occasionally bilobed. Fruit a few to many seeded berry, rarely a loculicidal or anomalously dehiscent capsule. Seeds arillate, usually flattened, the testa pitted, reticulate-foveate, or transversely grooved or sulcate; endosperm slightly ruminate, oily, abundant; embryo straight, the cotyledons usually elliptic to oblong-elliptic; germination epigeal (rarely hypogeal). Chromosome numbers: n = 6, 9, 10, 12 (rarely 7, 11, 18, 42).