Description from Flora of China
Granadilla Miller; Tripsilina Rafinesque.
Herbaceous or woody perennial vines, rarely shrubs or trees. Leaves simple or rarely compound, alternate (subopposite in one species), entire or dissected, petiolate, usually with extra-floral nectaries on petiole and/or blade; stipules linear to leaflike, often glandular. Inflorescence axillary, cymose; peduncle often highly reduced or absent, central axis developed into a tendril, secondary axes often highly reduced to 1 or 2 flowers; bracts minute to foliaceous, sometimes glandular. Flowers bisexual (rarely plants dioecious). Hypanthium broad to campanulate. Sepals 5, often petaloid, sometimes with a subapical projection. Petals 5 (rarely absent). Corona present at base of perianth in one to several series of showy filaments; innermost series (operculum) membranous, partially to entirely fused, margin entire or fimbriate, often incurved over nectar chamber; extra-staminal nectariferous disk (limen) present around base of androgynophore, fused to base of hypanthium. Stamens (4 or)5(-8); filaments free (rarely connate into a tube around ovary); anthers linear or oblong, dorsifixed, versatile. Ovary on androgynophore, stipitate or sessile, 3(-5)-carpellate; styles 3(-5), free; stigmas capitate. Fruit a berry (rarely a dehiscent capsule). Seeds arillate, compressed, testa pitted; endosperm oily, abundant; embryo straight; cotyledons elliptic or oblong-elliptic; germination epigeal (rarely hypogeal).
Passiflora "alato-caerulea" (Lindley, Bot. Reg. 10: t. 848. 1824), a hybrid of horticultural origin, is grown in China and elsewhere for its flowers and robust, vigorous vegetative growth. The epithet "alato-caerulea" is considered to be a hybrid formula (i.e., P. alata Curtis × P. caerulea Linnaeus) and not a true epithet (Vienna Code, Art. H.10.3).
The reader is referred to the following references: Killip, The American Species of Passifloraceae (Publ. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Bot. Ser. 19(1-2): 1-331, 333-613. 1938); de Wilde, A monograph of the genus Adenia Forsk. (Passifloraceae) (Meded. Landbouwhogeschool Wageningen 71(18): 1-281. 1971); and de Wilde, The Indigenous Old World Passifloras (Blumea 20: 227-250. 1973 ["1972"]).
About 520 species: mainly in tropical America and tropical Asia; 20 species (seven endemic, seven introduced) in China.
(Authors: Wang Yinzheng (王印政); Shawn E. Krosnick, Peter M. J鴕gensen)