Climbing herbs or shrubs, rarely erect. Leaves usually alternate, entire or lobed or palmately divided, stipulate; petiole generally provided with glands. Tendrils often present, axillary. Flowers page 188regular, hermaphrodite or unisexual, axillary, solitary or in cymes or racemes. Calyx-tube short or long; lobes 4–5, valvate or imbricate. Petals as many as the calyx-lobes or wanting, inserted on the calyx-tube, free or connate. Corona of one or more rows of filamentous appendages arising from the calyx-tube, rarely wanting. Stamens 3–5, rarely more, usually springing from the base of the calyx, but filaments often monadelphous and adnate to the stalk of the ovary to near the top. Ovary superior, free, elevated on a stalk (gynophore) or sessile, 1-celled, with 3–5 parietal placentas;. tyles 3–5 or single; ovules numerous, pendulous, anatropous. Fruit succulent; or capsular. Seeds numerous, ovoid or compressed, often arillate; albumen fleshy; embryo straight, cotyledons flat.

A small order, chiefly tropical in its distribution, and most abundant in South America. Genera 18; species about 250. The fruit of several species of Passiflora (passion-fruit) is valued on account of the cooling and refreshing pulp surrounding the seeds; the large-fruited kind, known as grenadilla, being specially prized. The very different-looking papaw is now everywhere cultivated in the tropics for its large fruit, which, though insipid, is cooling and antiseptic. The only genus found in New Zealand (Passiflora) is mainly South American, but has a few outlying species in Australasia, the Pacific islands, and tropical Asia.

1. Passiflora, Linn.

Climbing shrubs. Leaves simple or palmately lobed or divided, often with glands on the undersurface and petiole; tendrils axillary. Flowers axillary, solitary or racemose. Calyx-tube short, lobes 4–5. Petals 4–5, rarely wanting, inserted on the throat of the calyx. Corona of one or several rings of coloured filaments arising from the calyx-tube. Stamens as many as the calyx-lobes; filaments adnate to the stalk of the ovary; anthers versatile. Ovary superior, elevated on a long stalk or gynophore, 1-celled; styles 3; stigmas capitate. Fruit succulent or pulpy, indehiscent or obscurelv 3-valved.

A large genus of over 120 species, chiefly tropical, and most plentiful in South America. The New Zealand species is endemic, and constitutes the section Tetrapathæa, characterized by the unisexual tetramerous flowers and ebracteate peduncles.