Another Day on the Penninsula

I went back to South Coast Botanical Garden again to see if any of the Decaloba in the greenhouse were in bloom. Answer: none. There were only a couple of P. 'Lavendar Lady' and the rest was all green and buds. Maybe in a month there will be flowers to see. It was a quick visit inside, and a slightly longer one outside the gates where the P. 'Blue-Eyed Susan' was in bloom by the bushels. The light was harsh, but I snapped a few shots before heading home.

Memorial Day Sale

My best friend and I went to the local botanical garden about 15 minutes south of where I live. I had been at Strybing earlier this month, and I already had the itch to go see more Passiflora. Having been to South Coast Botanical Garden once before, I knew there was a green house loaded with Decalobas and one rogue P. caerulea trying to choke out the intentional vegetation. But last time I was there, very little was in bloom. I wanted to see if this time of year would be different.

Just inside the front gate after checking in I noticed there were some plants for sale. Each had little placards with a picture and the name of the genus and species. The first one that I saw was P. trisecta. I remember saying something to the effect of, "oh hey, trisecta, I have that one." Then, as my eyes fell on more of the selection I realized that two folding tables were full of Passiflora! I don't think I said anything, but if I did it was probably something like, "look!"

Needless to say, I spent a good while checking every tag while I decided which lucky little plants would be coming home with me. My friend counted 19 species, and I purchased 6 of those, including:

• P. penduliflora
• P. karwinskii
• P. guatemalensis
• P. tucumanensis
• P. porphyretica var. angustata
• P. misera

Having checked out with my new additions, I purchased a membership, and regrouped to begin what we had come to the garden to do. But first! there were several gulf fritillary butterflies hovering around a bush near the main gate. If I ever get to hunt for species in the wild, I know to follow these buggers. They're notorious Passiflora pests. They seem to lay their eggs almost exclusively on the Passiflora greenery. In fact there was a little caterpillar on one of the plants that I purchased (that my best friend kindly returned to the garden). The butterflies were flirting with a vine that was coming up from an apparently extensive root system. I couldn't make out the species or cultivar from the wilted flowers, but one of the shoots found its way into my camera bag, so hopefully I'll find out eventually.

We eventually did make it into the garden a little later than we had planned. The greenhouse was the necessary stop, and we found it groomed since our last visit. But, there were only two Passiflora in bloom there: P. 'Amethyst' and P. capsularis. The rest were laden with buds, which means that I'll have to make good use of my new membership and revisit later this season when I think they're opening based on my own plants.

South Coast Botanic Garden: Part 2 - Green House and Beyond

Besides some dubious name plates on the decaloba subgenus of Passiflora specimens, the green house was fun. The vines were climbing all over the trusses, and the carnivorous plants were hanging everywhere. The Passiflora were so vigorous about getting to the light that they had actually penetrated the air conditioner and were thriving on the other side.

Beyond the greenhouse is where I found P. caerulea growing in and through its neighbors. Consequently, when the hedges and boughs were recently trimmed, P. caerulea was cut back pretty severely. Despite that, there were some low hanging literal fruit and all signs said that come next Spring there would be plenty of flowers to see. 

South Coast Botanic Garden: Part 1 - Passiflora Misidentified

I went to the South Coast Botanic Garden today as a late birthday adventure. I had been traveling for work for two weeks back-to-back, and since it was both a beautiful day and a day that I could stay away from the office, I decided that it would be fun to traipse around there even if most of the plants weren't in bloom. Chiefly I had seen a P. caerulea picture on Yelp, so I knew there was some hunting to do. There was also a greenhouse that I discovered once there that housed several bromelias, pitcher plants, and many Passiflora especially subgenus decaloba. Many were not in bloom, but it was still fun to play "Where's Waldo". Their name plates (reproduced faithfully) were as follows:

P. Lavendar Lady
P. White Wedding
Gynura aurantiaca 'Purple Passion Vine'
P. hahnii  (=P. guatemalensis)
P. tricuspis
P. lancearia (=P. talamancensis)
P. apetala

Having seen that a couple of the species shared names, and not being as familiar with the decalobas, I returned home to investigate. It turns out that P. hahnii and P. guatemalensis are often confused, but I think I've found the answer.

"P. guatemalensis, common from Mexico to Venezuela, looks very similar to P. hahnii. For a long time they were thought to be one and the same species, and Killip (1938) erroneously mentioned P. guatemalensis as a synonym for P. hahnii. It be distinguished from P. hahnii by its stipules and shorter peduncles, and by the usual lack of extrafloral nectaries at the base of the leaf blade. While in P. guatemalensis the toothed stipules end in filiform appendages, in P. hahnii these are reduced to tiny teeth at most, or a single central tooth. John Vanderplank (1996a) points out that the flowers of P. hahnii appear singly, while in P. guatemalensis they mainly appear in pairs. This is generally true by not as dependable as the structure of the stipule." - MacDougal and Ulmer 2004

Based on the above description of the stipules and this photo, I believe the specimen in the South Coast Botanic Garden to be P. guatemalensis; not P. hahnii.

On to the next odd pair. I've found that P. lancearia is nothing like P. talamancensis, which is a difficult species for which to find information. It does however have almost identical leaves to P. helleri. So, now I have a three-way puzzle to solve. For which, I do not have an answer. Any advice is appreciated.

Another species to check would be P. tricuspis, which is commonly the misidentified P. trifasciata. Again, MacDougal land Ulmer write:

"Occasionally, one comes across a plant cultivated under the name Passiflora tricuspis that is actually P. trifasciata. These sister species can be distinguished by their leaves, though some specimens are more difficult to classify than others. In P. tricuspis, the 2 outer lobes are usually noticeably longer than the middle one."

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture in which to compare the lobes. I did get the contact information for the individual in charge of the greenhouse, so I'll be giving her a call to discuss some of these discrepancies. 

Obviously, Gynura aurantiaca 'Purple Passion Vine' is not a passion vine at all. I don't even know what to make of this, but I hope to get clarification soon.

By the way, I did find P. caerulea when I saw a immature split open fruit on the ground. Upon inspection I found the source to be a rather large vine that had been recently cut back with its surroundings. I'll have to go back sometime later to see it in bloom.