Passiflora foetida (Love in a Mist)
(Foetida means smelly.)
Passifloraceae, the Passionflower Family
Want to try a creepy adventure? This morning I got up at dawn to beat the thunderstorms, which have not come. Plunged into the murky mists in an inundated Hypericum marsh to tend to a little botanical business. In over your knees in the morning twilight among reeds, tussocks, fallen logs, bird groans, croaking frogs, and wil-o-the-wisps, it is eerie to hear “things” swimming. I mean what swamp dwellers splash when they swim!? The imagination runs wild. Critters splash into the black water as you approach. To the neurotic, a frog plop sounds like a hippo. Any pythons in PB County? Do Cottonmouths splash when they flop in from a low branch? Not so spooky are the Zebra Longwing Butterflies out in force today, interestingly going about their flutter duties low in the foliage. Zebra Longwings bring to mind Passionvines, the topic with such a long lead-in.
By John Bradford
Today’s blog rests on the shoulders of titans. Biologist Dr. Walter Bien suggested the topic and sent info. He and John Bradford took the photos. Passiflora foetida, native to South America, is introduced and weedy all around the hot-climate world, including here. If we must be invaded the intruder might as well be beautiful, and curious.
The pretty flower looks like many other passionflowers. The fruit suggests a red cherry, helping to explain its global conquest with the help of birds. Today’s focus is on the net wrapped around the fruit, inspiring the name “Love-in-a-Mist.” The mist is made of bracts wrapping round from beneath the flower.
Now any fool can guess the net protects delicacies within. Demonstrably so. If you want to keep the bad guys out, a little toxin can be useful. Could offing pests be a first step toward carnivory? If you’re going to kill’em you might as well eat’em. Granny salvaged roadkill after all.
By Walter Bien
As Dr. Bien related, the net is protocarnivorous. Glands on it secrete a compound called passifloricin and sticky mucilage to trap insects. Passifloricin is a lactone a broad family of cyclic molecules often bioactive and in many fragrant essential oils. Passifloricin kills microscopic protists and undoubtedly also small insects. Going beyond mere defense, the secretions have protein-digesting enzymes. Drumroll please! That ability is characteristic of carnivorous plants.
Walter Bien
Please don’t go push poor little buggies into the web of death, but it might be interesting to peek in with a magnifying class.
John Bradford
George Rogers
George Rogers
Dee Staley
Treasure Coast Natives 