LOCAL AND NATIVE PLANTS OF AUSTIN AND THE HILL COUNTRY
Passion Flower (Passiflora incarnata)
Images of Passiflora lutea are from Temperate Climate Permaculture.
The Wildflower Center's Native Plant Database notes that Native Americans used the leaves both internally and externally as a tonic and poultice. The USDA Plants Database notes that the roots were also crushed for ear drops and tonics.
It's best to extract the juicy pulp from around the hard seeds like one would a pomegranate. When the outer leather of the fruit dents to the touch, it's at its sweetest and ready to pop open!
The insides of the fruit may be eaten raw or pressed into cold beverages--careful, it's tangy! The tang, however, makes a great addition to smoothies with sweeter fruits. I'm also considering making tangy preserves with it, but likely in combination with berries from the garden.
The leaves are also edible steamed, though they lack much gusto alone. Steam them with other edible greens.
There are two other species of passion flower that are native to Texas and have palatable fruit: Passiflora foetida (also called stinking passion flower--presumably due to the leaves and the flower) and Passiflora lutea (yellow passion flower, though the bloom is more greenish and doesn't stand out from the rest of the vine all that well).
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Images are from Wikimedia commons. The left is Passiflora foetida (By Bob Peterson from North Palm Beach, Florida). The right is Passiflora lutea (by TheAlphaWolf).
Resources and further reading
Information on passion flower can also be found here:"Edible and Useful Plants of Texas and the Southwest" by Delena Tull.
"New Healing Herbs" by Michael Castleman.
"Wildflowers of Texas" by Geyata Ajilvsgi.
"A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants of Eastern and Central North America" by Steven Foster and James A. Duke.
