Passiflora
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Passiflora, known also as the passion flowers or passion vines, is a genus of about 550 species of flowering plants, the type genus of the family Passifloraceae.
They are mostly tendril-bearing vines, with some being shrubs or trees. They can be woody or herbaceous. Passion flowers produce regular and usually showy flowers with a distinctive corona.
The passion in passion flower refers to the passion of Jesus in Christian theology; the word passion comes from the Latin Template:Lang, meaning 'suffering'. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spanish Christian missionaries adopted the unique physical structures of this plant, particularly the numbers of its various flower parts, as symbols of the last days of Jesus and especially his crucifixion:
- The pointed tips of the leaves were taken to represent the Holy Lance.
- The tendrils represent the whips used in the flagellation of Christ.
- The ten petals and sepals represent the ten faithful apostles (excluding St. Peter, who denied Jesus three times, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him).
- The flower's radial filaments, which can number more than a hundred and vary from flower to flower, represent the crown of thorns.
- The chalice-shaped ovary with its receptacle represents the Holy Grail.
- The three stigmas represent three nails and the five anthers below them five hammers or five wounds (four by the nails and one by the lance).
- The blue and white colors of many species' flowers represent Heaven and Purity.
- In addition, the flower is open for three days, symbolising the three years of Jesus' ministry.
