passion flower

These climbing, vinelike plants derive their name from the ‘passion’ or sufferings of Jesus at the crucifixion. Spanish missionaries to South America, where many species grow, thought the flowers resembled the crown of thorns and the wounds on Jesus' body. Some species are cultivated for their edible fruits or decorative flowers.

Any of a group of tropical American climbing plants. They have distinctive flowers consisting of a saucer-shaped petal base, a fringelike corona or circle of leafy outgrowths inside the ring of petals, and a central stalk bearing five pollen-producing stamens and three pollen-receiving stigmas. The flowers can be yellow, greenish, purple, or red. Some species produce edible fruit. (Genus Passiflora, family Passifloraceae.)

Parts of the flower were said by Jesuit missionaries to South America to resemble symbols of Christ's crucifixion, for example the crown of thorns, the five wounds, and the three nails; hence the name, referring to the suffering, or passion, of Christ on the cross.