A while back I posted my research on the passiflora and the passionfruit plant. And after about a year of growing in pots and transplanting to the garden I have a great vine growing now. More to come on that progression but for now I’ve been doing some reading on hand pollinating the passiflora to help it set fruit.
The passiflora has both male and female bits however they need to be pollinated from different flowers. The flowers can be from the same plant for most of the passiflora family. My notes are focussed on the Passiflora Edulis (or common purple) variety.
To hand pollinate you first need to know a thing or two about plant morphology (just a fancy word for what bits do what!)
Here’s a quick run down on the flower parts for reproduction aka fruit making are:
- Stamen – the full length is called the stamen with the anther on the end that contains the pollen. On the passiflora there are 5 of them (believed to represent the 5 wounds of Christ)
- Carpel – on the passiflora there are 3 (believed to represent the 3 nails used in the crucifixion) and their job is to collect the pollen. They do this through the commonly known stigma on the end of the carpel. The stigma collects the pollen, runs it down the pollen tube (known as the “style“) and into the ovary. Just like humans, it’s the ovary that’ll turn into a baby, in this case a passionfruit!
So with that easy bit of information, how can we hand pollinate a passiflora? Easy!
- Clip the anther’s off the end of the staman
- Using your hands or a brush, rub the pollen onto stigma that’s on the end of the carpel
- Done!
Geek, Garden and Cook 
Awesomeness!!!