Passiflora resticulata | The Italian Collection of Maurizio Vecchia

DESCRIPTION:

Its white flowers suffused with pink and enriched by a fluffy, dense, light corona give it an exceptionally graceful appearance. It is proof, once again, of the passionflower genus' evolutionary abilities to create flowers of often striking beauty, in a surprising diversity of styles.

P. resticulata grows naturally in the Cordillera of Colombia and Ecuador, up to a height of 2500 m. It is a lively liana, hairless and thin, whose ideal minimum temperature is around 10°C, although it can tolerate short periods at lower temperatures. It can be placed outdoors in the warmer regions of Italy, positioned against a south-facing wall and using moveable protection in winter. However, it is easy to grow in a pot and blooms profusely even when small.

It has trilobate leaves with graded, rounded lobes, about 7 cm long and 9 cm wide.

The flowers, with a diameter of about 5 cm, have slender sepals and petals which, once flowering, fold back almost completely in a disordered way. A long, soft flattened hook characterises the sepals themselves. The corona is made up of two series of dense, thin white filaments with alternating light pink bands in their middle part; they are slightly curled at the apices and tangled, so increasing the light, dishevelled appearance of the flowers.

The fruits, with an elliptical cross-section, are black when ripe and have a median diameter of about 5 cm.

Reproduced from cuttings, it roots easily, but sowing is also a valid method for obtaining new plants.