Passiflora membranacea Benth.

Rather stout climbers, glabrous throughout. Leaves rather shortly petiolate, simple, barely peltate, suborbicular and very indistinctly 3-lobed, the tip and lateral lobes mucronulate, 5-10 cm. long and about as broad; petioles 2-3 cm. long, eglandular; stipules conspicuously foliaceous, deeply cordate-reniform and strongly amplexicaul, 1.5-3.0 cm. broad. Inflorescences solitary at the nodes, bearing a single very strikingly involucrate greenish white or cream flower; peduncles 10-15 cm. long, jointed almost immediately beneath the flower; bracts very broadly ovate or suborbicular, very deeply cordate, 4-5 cm. long and broad, pale green strongly suffused with rose. Flowers about 7-8 cm. in diameter; sepals oblong-lanceolate, about 4 cm. long, not corniculate; petals oblong-elliptic, about as long as the sepals; filaments of the corona in 2 series, the outer about 1 cm. long. Fruits oblong-ovoid, tapered at the base, 4-6 cm. long and 2-3 cm. thick, yellowish green.

High forest regions; at elevations up to 3,000 metres. Dense, moist or wet, mixed forest, occasionally in oak forest, sometimes in exposed places in thickets, often on cliffs or in white sand; at elevations from 1,350-3,000 metres in Guatemala

The fruit can be eaten raw or cooked.

Plants can be grown from fresh seeds. The pulp helps speed up germination. Stored seed should be soaked in warm water for 24 hours. It can still take 12 months to germinate. Cuttings can be used as well as layering and air-layering. Plants can be cut back and will re-grow.