Maypops? HUH?
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| Maypop |
This is the maypop, also known as the passion vine or passion flower. The name maypop comes from the fact that in May, when they are green and 'hollow', they can be stepped on and make a popping sound.
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| Passion Flower |
It grows wild on the property at the farm. Such a BEAUTIFUL flower.
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| Purple Passion Flower |
And, according to THIS WEBSITE, the flowers become edible fruit!
Here are some flowers that are still visible behind the fruit that they produced. Then, the fruit gets larger until it's about the size of a large egg, as below.
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| Maypops bearing fruit |
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| Maypop or Passionfruit |
We SO want to eat one, just to try it, but the last couple of years, since we discovered this particular area on the farm that has them, we never seem to get to them before the birds/rabbits/deer do. According to the website above, wild passion vines are somewhat rare in Texas, so I told 2nd Man that the area they are growing in needs to be sectioned off so we make sure it's never mowed down or cleared.
Now we just play the waiting game I suppose and see if we can get to them after they turn yellowish (a signed of being ripe). Is this what becomes "passion fruit"? Or is that something different? They still aren't ripe, I just checked last weekend, but hoping they do ripen eventually so we can enjoy them.
Now we just play the waiting game I suppose and see if we can get to them after they turn yellowish (a signed of being ripe). Is this what becomes "passion fruit"? Or is that something different? They still aren't ripe, I just checked last weekend, but hoping they do ripen eventually so we can enjoy them.
I think all the Passifloras are considered passion fruits. But yours is a different species than what you would buy in the store. Love the photos. I've always loved passion flowers as they are weird and beautiful.
ReplyDeletei never heard them called maypops before! i LOVE passion fruit.
ReplyDeleteI have a very healthy population of them in my yard and gardens in central Kansas (Zone 6), which is much farther north than they are usually found (but nobody told them, so they keep coming up). We only got ripe fruit one year, when it was very warm early in the spring and stayed that way, so they came up early (usually up around July 4th). That gave them a long enough season that we had some ripe fruit in fall - just in time for them to get frosted down, ha! Enjoy - the flowers are sooooo cool and the there is one fritillary butterfly (maybe the gulf frit???) that uses them for caterpillar food, so you will see the butterflies, then a while later the cool-looking caterpillars munching away. Deb
ReplyDeleteWhat a unique and beautiful little plant.
ReplyDeleteI had some bloom in my garden this year too!
ReplyDeleteYour little farm is just full of surprises! Those sure are pretty flowers! It's great that you are going to protect them in their habitat - y'all are such good stewards of nature.
ReplyDeleteWe had Maypops in Jackson, MS. My brother ate them and swore they were delicious. I was a more cautious child. Maybe you can put them on a trellis. Ours grew up on an old building abandoned on the ten acres we had. My brother climbed the building to get some of the Maypops. Passionflower shampoo is luscious smelling, but I don't know if it is scented like the scent of a passionflower.
ReplyDeleteI'm about an hour away from Jackson ms. This is the first year I have noticed having may pops on my fence in my back yard but it has taken over almost half my fence back there lol. The flowers have been beautiful!!!. I don't have any ripe yet but I'll be trying them when all the little green " eggs" get ripe. I hope they do at least!!!!!
DeleteI'm growing passionfruit on my little property, the vine is about 4 years old now and it went nuts this year with fruit. We eat one every night with a small bowl of vanilla ice cream. We have to pick them early as rabbits get them and my dog loves them! As soon as they start to turn purple-ish you can pick them and they should ripen up if put with other ripe fruit.
ReplyDeleteI've gone through phases on not being able to get enough of passion fruit but since I've started paying more attention to eating locally, they haven't featured quite as much in my diet. Hope you enjoy yours when they're ripe. Do you read Rhona-Jean's Down to Earth blog? (down---to---earth.blogspot.com) She grows passion fruit - if you search the blog for passion fruit there are loads of posts where she talks about what she does with them - making curd, ice-cream toppings, cheescake and so on.
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