passionflower

• Passionflower, passion flower, Passion flower, passion-flower

Calque of Italian fior della Passione or Latin flōs Passiōnis; after the appearance and number of its various parts, thought to be symbolic of Christ's passion.

• Audio (US)

  (file)

passionflower (plural passionflowers)

1. Any of very many vines, in North America and elsewhere, of the genus Passiflora that bear edible fruit called passion fruit, and showy flowers of a structure symbolic of the Passion of Christ.
   • 1810-19, Robert Southey, History of Brazil:

     The Priests observed frequent fasts, and abstained at all times from certain animals and fruits, especially from the Granadilla, the fruit of the Passion-flower, because, say the lying Jesuits, of the mysteries which are signified in that marvellous blossom […]

2. The flower of this plant.

• Passiflora
• passion fruit

• Passiflora on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Passiflora on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Passiflora on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• “passionflower”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “passionflower”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• Passiflora at USDA Plants database