PlantFiles: Wild Yellow Passion Flower, Passionflower, Passion Vine, Passionvine
Passiflora lutea

I live in Melbourne Florida and have this dainty yellow passionvine growing wild all over my yard. However the zebra longwings and the gulf frits seem to ignore it. The zebras will touch down lightly on the leaves to test the plant and then move on. They really seem to prefere the Passiflora Incarnata that I also have growing wild all over my yard. I wish they would be more interested in the native passionvine as it is more hardy than the other variety. Maybe if the other one was not so abundant they would take advantage of the native variety. I have one yellow passionvine in a hanging pot on my pool deck and it is really very pretty and an aggressive grower in the ground.

We bought our raw/undeveloped land (foothills of the Arkansas Ozarks) in the summer 0f '09 and moved onto it in September of that year. Unknowingly, until this summer, I have been keeping my eye on this plant because the unique, lightly variegated leaves caught my attention. I found my first flower about 3 weeks ago and finally made a positive ID today.
The plants that are growing wild here are in very rocky, acidic soil and receive partial sun. They appear to be rather resilient in drought conditions as we've had a very dry summer with temps above 100F since late spring. It has survived our hot, dry conditions much better than the wild Passiflora incarnata, which died back when it got so hot.
They are growing right around flower beds that I've established since moving here so I will be expanding the beds to include our Wild Yellow Passion Flower vines instead of trying to transplant them.
I suspect they are fairly new plants as most of them are just above a foot tall but that could have a lot to do with the weather conditions this growing season.
I have found a dozen plants around the small clearing that we call home and will continue looking for more of them in our woods and mark them as I find them.

Found a volunteer of this Passiflora variety coming up in a stand of Confederate Jasmine along an east facing wall. It has been blooming since April. Small insignificant blooms about 1/2 inch in diameter. The fruit is ripening now in numbers along the vine. Deep purple fruit also about 1/4 - 1/2 inch in diameter. I am training the vine up the wall as I find it more delicate in appearance than the cultivated Passiflora vine and also find it a conversation piece as one has to really look for the flowers. When the flowers are discovered they have the same intricate components as the larger flowers and are like tiny jewels. Will be trying to propogate the vine from seed this summer.
Vero Beach, FL

This species grows well in full sun to part-shade in Rochester, NY, and Cambridge, MA (both USDA zone 6a), where they can get quite large and form a dense wall of leaves. Some years all of the leaves will turn bright yellow all at once in the fall. It has rhizomes but does not spread widely like the weedy Passiflora incarnata. If this species does so well in zone 6a then it would probably do fine in zone 5 as well.

This plant is native to a large range in the US. I think this plant should be grown more often but it definitely isn't for everyone. In North Carolina they tend to stay small compared to our other passiflora (Passiflora incarnata). If you expect large showy flowers typical of this genus then you should not plant this. The flowers are very small (around nickel size) and do not particularly stand out. Leaves have a great coloration and are usually slightly variegated. They tend to have a short life span, typically lasting three to four years in captivity. I have seen vines in the wild come back for longer than that but rarely have them last that long in the garden setting. This is a host to the Gulf Fritillary. There is also a bee species (Anthemurgus passiflorae) that only uses this plant as its pollen source and is little known. The bee is the only member in its genus which makes it a neat sight.

Passiflora lutea is actually the hardiest of all passiflora species. It is probably a zone 5 plant. It is native to the Southeast, ranging from the coasts north to Pennsylvania and Ohio and west to Kansas.

Having never seen this plant before in my area of Northeast Tennessee, it took some time to finally identify it. It started as a single vine that sprouted mysteriously out of a dying Japanese Yew that was planted in my yard four years ago. I suspect it was the result of a bird dropping from a fruit that was eaten in another area. The vine only wanted to grow vertically with a peculiar nodding habit. It eventually took over the dying yew and in each subsequent year has sprouted more and more shoots from an obviously stoloniferous habit.

This year it has sprouted more than thirty vines in an area of approximately six square feet. They stand about three feet vertically above the yew bush and will probably start falling over soon and blanketing the bushes. They draw multitudes of bees and small wasps to the abundant nickel-sized pale yellow flowers in mid-Summer as well as Gulf Fritallary caterpillars. They have an interesting small fruit that is pea-sized and almost black in color. The fruits have to be handled carefully as they will leave you with a very dark purple blackberry-like stain that doesn't wash off easily. The seeds are typical of Passifloras although smaller than P. incarnata. They would be nice plants if located in a suitable area. Where they are now qualifies them as a weed. I don't know if they can be propogated other than by seeds.

Found growing wild north of Houston, TX. Pretty flowers, with interestingly shaped (almost grape-like) leaves.

I found this growing under one of my oak trees. I found it because the Zebra long-winged butterfly was fluttering all around. With the help of a friend, we found the base of it and wound it around 2 small oak tree that were growing. I bent them over and tied to make a trellis. I looks real nice and full this year. I have my children (homeschool) study the butterfly cycle from laying eggs, to caterpillar to butterflies. I have some great pictures of the butterflies mating while in the chrysalis. It flowers regularly and produces green grape-like fruit which turns purple when ripe. Easy to grow from seed. Birds and squirrels must like the seed because they disappear quickly off the plant.

We have just found this plant in my mother's yard alongside a fence in the shade. It took me forever to identify it. I think it is beautiful but don't want to encourage it if it is an obnoxious weed. It doesn't seem to be aggresive......yet.

This plant is weedy, but interesting. The blooms are tiny and greenish colored, but have a slight sweet fragrance. I wouldn't plant it, but I enjoy it when it volunteers. (The bloom is about the size of a quarter, or smaller)