Tuesday, April 5, 2011

The Passion Flower is Blooming

The season is Lent and fittingly, my Passion Flower is blooming!  In fact, it is prolific in blooms.  I hope you are familiar with this beautiful plant and flower.  If not, let me explain it to you.

I grew up with a Passion Flower blooming in the dining room bay window and then it was transplanted into the outside"Rabatt" or raised bed next to our brick home in the spring.  It was always a beautiful  memory of my childhood and when I found this plant in Florida, I knew I had to have it.

The legend of the Passion Flower is this:  Five petals and five sepals are ten apostles leaving out Judas and Peter because he denied knowing Jesus.  The purple corolla had seventy-two filaments, the number of thorns in Jesus's crown.  The three pistil stigmas are nails.  The five stamens are the number of wounds, so that to this day, Catholics in South and Central America call it "The Flower of the Five Wounds."

The leaf represents the spear that placed the wound in Jesus's side.  The dark spots under the leaves are the 33 pieces of silver paid to Judas.  When the flowers are spent after a single day (the time Jesus spent on the cross), the petals do not drop from the vine but re-close over the ovary.  This symbolizes the Hidden Wisdom that constitutes the Mysteries of the Cross, and is like Jesus enclosed in the tomb.

It is a beautiful, climbing vine.  If you have never seen it or not familiar with it, I hope you will research it.  It gives off a delicate fragrance.



14 comments:

  1. Very beautiful and I love the story behind it.

    Best,
    Bonnie

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  2. So cool. I've never seen such an impressive flower. Thanks for sharing, Susan!

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  3. Susan, I appreciate your telling the story behind the passion flower. I had several growing on my fence for a long time, then one spring they didn't come back. Seeing yours makes me miss mine. Beautiful story. blessings ~ tanna

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  4. What a beautiful flower, I've never seen one. Thank you for sharing the flower and the story behind it.

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  5. What a fantastic story. I am only familiar with the Grenadilla Passion fruit but the flower is similar. I presume this particular species does not have fruit. Diane

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  6. I had no idea! It's perfectly lovely, Susan!

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  7. This is one of the reasons I love blogging so much; learning something new every day. I had never heard of this and it is truly magical; thank you for sharing.

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  8. I've never seen this flower, but what a nice story behind it. Going to google it now :)

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  9. What a lovely story. I'd never heard it before. Thank you.

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  10. I've heard the story, but never seen the plant outside of plant books - it's beautiful.

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  11. I love those intricate blooms! I remember hearing the story a long time ago. I wish I could grow it here!

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  12. I had no idea what a passion flower looked like or any information about it. This is beautiful. You provided a really nice description.

    Velva

    P.S. you asked where all the egg yolks went that were not part of the coconut cake...The egg yolks were saved. My husband is eating then scrambled with salsa in the morning. :-)

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  13. What an exotic looking flower! Nice to meet you and your blog!

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  14. What a beautiful flower Susan. I don't think I've ever seen a passion flower.
    Sam

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