I was walking Connor this weekend and noticed a very unusual flower blooming in a hedgerow. It was so interesting, with so many extraordinary features, that I thought I’d share it with you and see if you had any idea what it is. 
The flower has purple and white squiggly petals, leading to a center section. However, below the purple petals, there are some white petals and an outer layer of green petals, as you can see from this shot of the stem side.
Each of the green pieces has something that looks like horns on it.
The center of the flower is almost orchid-like. 
It has five of the “freckled” looking bits and above that there are three more pieces sticking out.
It’s really the most amazing and elaborate flower I’ve seen in a long time. Finding it growing wild in a hedgerow in the middle of the city astounds me. 
September 18, 2011
What is This?
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I think you have a passionfruit flower here.
ReplyDeleteAren't they beautiful.
Sue
WOW! That was quick! I looked it up and you might be right. But they're not at all native to this area (mid-atlantic). They found north of Ohio, west to California and south to the Keys. Not at all along the Mid-Atlantic.
ReplyDeleteIt's a passion flower.
ReplyDeletehttp://healthyhomegardening DOT com/Plant.php?pid=2842
Hope you and Connor have an uneventful week.
I was going to say I have no idea but it is stunning! I will now have to go do a bit of research. Thanks for sharing! Have a great week, hopefully Connor will be good. Maybe he needs an anxiety medication?
ReplyDeleteSue again, I live in Sydney Australia .. I've been trying to grow passionfuit, but we live in a bit of a valley with lots of trees which are beautiful but don't allow enough hours of sunshine for me to grown them.
ReplyDeleteI was reading Absolutley Beautiful Things & saw your blog & popped over for a look.
I'm enjoying reading your back posts.
Enjoy your day!
Wow, a passionfruit, I live in California but have never encountered one. I wonder if I could grow one in the
ReplyDeleteSacramento Valley?
Yes, passion flower. You should be able to find a perennial variety for Baltimore, especially if you cut it back in the fall and mulch it.
ReplyDeleteMost definitely a passionfruit vine flower. My fences are covered in them! However, I am in Australia where they are quite common.
ReplyDeleteI had to look it up too, Meg; my husband recently brought home a section of the vine he'd clipped on the golf course. The section had one open blossom, and four prominent whitish unopened bulbs/buds. I put it in water on the kitchen counter, supporting the length of the vine on the window sill, I had NO IDEA the buds would open up into the spectacle you've photographed, you're right, it's beyond description, at some point during the day the other buds opened and the house was FILLED I mean FILLED with a powerful scent, it was striking. And then they close back up again!
ReplyDelete-Flo
Meg, we were having dinner at a friend's farm in Bowie last night and bragging about our new prolific passion flower vine.
ReplyDeleteThey warned us it can become an invasive here and they are constantly pulling it out all over their 5 acres.
geez, we didn't expect ours to winter over:)
yes, passion vine.
xo jane
The photos are amazing - not to mention the beautiful flower! Passion flower may be it as I remember a friend's father grew some locally years ago.
ReplyDeleteI have a carefully controlled passion flower vine growing in a pot. it's RED and I love it. It winters over (I'm in southern Va.) without care. Your find must have been dropped by a bird one day.....k
ReplyDeleteYes, a passionflower.
ReplyDeleteSo called because someone with an over-active imagination thought the flowers of this vine look like the tools used to crucify Christ.
I'm not kidding.
Should be perennial in zones 6-10 but can be invasive.
Sorry, I should have written "parts of the flower look like the tools.....".
ReplyDeleteNot the flower as a whole, which is perfectly lovely and exotic.
WOW! Absolutely STUNNING!!!
ReplyDeleteI live in Alabama and have this popping up all over one flowerbed. Apparently the seeds came in with a load of mulch! It is very invasive for me, as are morning glories. If left alone, the flowers produce a large fruit that is not edible, although some varieties are.
ReplyDeleteYou say you saw it in your walk? My advice is enjoy the view of it in someone else's garden but don't plant it in your own!
It is a Passion Flower! How beautiful they are + take over. I agree with Cyndia-don't plant one in your garden. xxpeggybraswelldesign.com
ReplyDeleteThe flower will eventually yield to a hollow pithy fruit that children will squeeze until they pop, hence the other common name, the Maypop. Not sure if they are edible though. I have another species of same here in Columbia, SC that has little yellow flowers just like those but just shy of an inch wide.
ReplyDeleteBest -
- Mike
Woops forgot to add .... month of May .... the other part of the name. That is when they begin to appear.
ReplyDelete- Mike
Beautiful photos of the passionflower!
ReplyDeleteHope that you are doing well in Pigtown!
Grant
grantkgibson.com
grantkgibson.blogspot.com
Hi Meg, I knew instinctively what that flower was (the reverse in the first photo)--it is my brain in the morning when I get out of bed on the wrong side....a little frazzled and grouchy. Thanks, Mary
ReplyDeleteI have been pondering Mr Escape Artist, aka Connor: does he need a job to do while you are gone? How about a kitten to keep him occupied? Jones loves his cats and is in charge of them while I'm gone....he is the sheriff that keeps them from fighting and he does a great job. Mary
ReplyDeleteA very unique flower, looks like a man made artificial flower. I hope i can see that in it's personal appearance.
ReplyDeleteOne huge plant grew out of a pile of dirt on the sidewalk by my house in Atlanta.
ReplyDeleteWow its really very nice flower, I love that purple colour, I just first time seen it.very nice photography.
ReplyDeleteIt is a passion flower. So pretty!
ReplyDelete