What Is It?

I have seen and photographed some amazing flowers over the years. One flower that really caught my eye and made me ask "What is it?" when I first saw it was a Passion Flower. And I’m not the only one who has that reaction to these amazing flowers.

At shows, I’ll often see people looking at my photos, pick one up – and look at me with a questioning look on their face. They’ll often ask – "What is it?" And they don’t even have to show me which photo they’re holding – I know it’s one of my Pasison Flower photos. People have described it as looking like a jellyfish flower, a sea anemone flower, a space alien flower and most recently – as the purple pasta flower!

There are close to 500 varieties of passion flowers found primarily in tropical regions. There are nine varieties that are native to the United States. Most of these are vines with large distinct flowers that have adapted to local pollinators. In addition to the native varieties of passion flowers, many hybrids have been developed so now passion flowers can be found throughout the world.

Passion flowers are grown for their amazing flowers, and because they are very useful plants. The fruit of various passion flowers plants – passion fruit – are eaten by many people. Native populations have used parts of the passion flowers to treat everything from insomnia to epilepsy.

So far I’ve photographed five or six varieties of pasison flowers and I’m always on the lookout for more of these amazing flowers to photograph.

Passion Flower Pair is my January 2013 Photo of the Month. Until January 31, SAVE 20% off the regular prices for Passion Flower Pair.