Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds.

Time of bloom: May to August.

Seed-time: July to October.

Range: Virginia to Missouri, southward to Florida and Texas.

Habitat: Dry soil; troublesome in cultivated crops; waste places.

A handsome climbing vine, with curious and beautiful flowers and edible fruits. Stem smooth, or sometimes finely hairy at the growing tips and twigs, ten to thirty feet in length, the lower and older part becoming somewhat angled and ridged, climbing by means of long, coiling, axillary tendrils. Leaves alternate, three to five inches broad, usually smooth, heart-shaped at base and deeply three-lobed, the lobes pointed and sharply toothed, the slender petiole bearing two glands near the base of the blade. Flowers solitary, axillary, about two inches broad, showy, lifted on jointed pedicels longer than the leaf-stalks, and bearing three leaflike involucral bracts just below the flower; sepals five, united at base; five large white petals inserted on the throat of the calyx and crowned with triple rows of long fringes which are pale purple with a lighter band near the center; the one-celled ovary is lifted on a stipe, or foot-stalk, subtended by the five stamens and bears at its top three club-shaped stigmas. Fruit ovoid, about two inches long, smooth, yellow, pulpy, the

Fig. 201. - Passion-flower (Passi-flora incarnata). X 1/4 many seeds borne on its inner wall surface in three groups. (Fig. 201.)

Means Of Control

Very thorough tillage of cultivated crops, destroying as much as possible of the perennial roots; alternate such cultivation with heavy seeding to cowpeas or clover.