PASSIONFRUIT, Northern Maypop

Passiflora incarnata  

Botanical Sample - not germination tested

Seeds per packet ~ 30

These seeds come from our collaborators at the Experimental Farm Network, who say this about them:

"The maypop is the only passionfruit/passionflower native to the temperate US East Coast, from southern New Jersey to Florida in the East to Texas and Kansas in the West. It has also naturalized in other parts of the country and in Europe. Popular as an herbal sleep aid and anxiety treatment (usually in the form of a tea made from the leaves), maypops also produce a delicious fruit that ripens in the Fall and follows one of the most beautiful flowers on the planet. A perennial vine, it dies back to the ground each winter and grows back bigger each spring. It benefits from having a trellis or some other structure (like a tree) to climb, which increases fruit production, but they will also sprawl along the ground and grow a foot or two into the air using their own vines as support, if no other support is provided.

The sweet-sour fruit pulp (with a flavor reminiscent of pineapple, lemon, kiwi, caramel, and banana, though entirely unique) can be made into jam or jelly, eaten raw, or used as a flavoring for homebrews, kombucha, wine, or drinking vinegar. The leaves and flowers are also edible, with the young leaves being the most tender and palatable. They make a great addition to salads, and we like to just snack on them in the field. Our seeds all come from southern New Jersey and Delaware, from populations at the northern reaches of its "natural range" (which we believe was likely extended so far north by Native Americans many centuries ago). Due to the scarcity of these seeds, we have not conducted a germination test and so offer these as botanical samples. But we generally get 80-90% germination by planting them in a normal seed-starting medium, keeping them moist, and exposing them to warmth. They start sprouting as early as two weeks after planting, but be patient — they usually continue sprouting for up to two months. Perennial."