The Passion of the Grist

“We may affirm absolutely that nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.”

– Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of History (1832)

One of our favorite maxims at Myrtle’s place is that the best garden doesn’t start with the principle of “grow what is easy to grow” but rather with “grow things that are hard to kill.”  To that end, happily, one of the great principles of ecological sustainability – localism – is also one of the cornerstones of conservation of effort.  To whit:  as much as possible, grow food crops which occur naturally in your area.

There are some exceptions to this rule, of course, such as some of your more standard fare.  Tomatoes are grown almost universally now, in spite of originally being native to Central and South America.  Corn (maize to the rest of the world) does not even exist in nature, having been bred by Central Americans over several thousand years, and transported by agriculturalists to every corner of the globe.  Potatoes, pumpkins and squash, melons, etc. have all gotten cosmopolitan.

But the principle still holds that the simplest, most effective, and frequently the healthiest production methods involve growing in your garden those things which you might find growing wild in the nearest undeveloped land near your garden.

For our own part, we recently discovered a living verdant goldmine growing right on our own property, in the form of a number of volunteer passiflora incarnata, or “Maypop” plants.  Most commonly referred to simply as “Passion Flower” plants, they are closely related to the commercially grown passiflora edulis, which you can find in your produce store under the exotic name of “passion fruit”.

The South American variety of the egg-sized fruit is, perhaps, a little more aesthetically exciting, having a reddish-purplish exterior, with bright golden-green pulp that looks a little like the fleshy part of a kiwi wrapped around tiny seeds in little drupe-like pods much akin to a pomegranate.

Maypop, by contrast, is a rich deep green color right up until it turns golden when ripe, and the flesh and seeds are snowy white.  While it is an edible fruit, a surprising number of people grow it strictly for the showy purple and white flowers – understandable, as the flowers are exceptionally intricate and attractive, though unfortunate, as people who miss out on the fruit are not only losing out on the opportunity to eat some incredibly delicious drinks, preserves, garnishes, etc. (not to mention simply eating it fresh off the vine), but also one of the most beneficent sources of phytonutrients available anywhere.

Traditional nutritionists recognize maypop as high in Vitamins A and K, and as one of the best available plant sources of niacin.  In addition, though, it has been shown by several studies to have strong anxiolytic properties, owing to the existence of benzoflavones, essentially functioning on the nervous system like a low dose of diazepam (that’d be Valium^® for you brand-name shoppers).  If that makes you nervous, don’t be.  It is theoretically possible to overdose on maypop, but you would need to eat about 30 pounds of the stuff at one sitting to do so, which is not likely.  If, on the other hand, you simply want to have some calming peace-of-mind, a nice glass of herbal tea with a few slices of maypop can relax even the most frenetic of minds.  It has even shown therapeutic benefits in significantly reducing symptoms of withdrawal from and addiction and dependence on alcohol, morphine, nicotine, and benzodiazepines.  If you know someone trying to quit smoking, load them up with passion fruit.

We suspect that one of the major reasons this delightful locally available fruit source is not more widely known is the prominence with which it is featured in gardening literature written by northerners who grow it outside its natural range.  Unlike its South American cousin, passiflora incarnata handles colder temperatures fairly well, being able to grow back after a freeze, but its tolerance only extends so far.

While you can grow it in northern climates (and many people do so, because as noted it is a very attractive vining plant), it only produces fruit in its natural range, stretching from East Texas across to the Carolinas down to Florida.  Occasionally, it can produce fruit as far north as Illinois or Ohio… but for the most part it is a southern crop.

Traditional gardeners in the South have long been familiar with it as a foodstuff, though as people have moved away from the countryside and into larger cities, it has been naturally demoted out of most folks’ larders.

Historically, though, it has had high prominence.  The Cherokee referred to it as ‘ocoee’ and the Ocoee River is named for this plant.  In fact, it is the state flower of Tennessee.  It also featured heavily in Acadian cooking in their diaspora.  To this day, Louisiana’s Cajuns refer to it as ‘liane de grenade’, or ‘pomegranate vine’.  The taste is a bit sweeter, but the comparison is apt, as you can use maypop in pretty much the same way you would use pomegranates.

Typically not found below a thick canopy, it thrives on the edges of thickets, near waterways and in disturbed areas, where it gets the right combination of good exposure to sunlight (it can take medium shade, but not much more than that), climbing supports, and water.  It is pollinated by bumblebees and carpenter bees (honeybees manage to get nectar from it, but can’t generally move enough of the pollen from plant to plant to effect pollination) and is self-sterile, meaning there must be more than one plant to get fruit.

It also notably serves as the primary food source for two butterfly species, the Gulf fritillary (agraulis vanillae) also known as the “passion butterfly” owing to its larvae exclusively living on and eating passiflora leaves, and the Variegated fritillary (euptoieta claudia) which does not exclusively feed on passion vine, but does so whenever possible.

Gulf fritillary aka "Passion Butterfly"

While conservation of the butterflies seems like it just makes good sense, the relationship of the fritillaries to the passion vine provide an excellent glimpse into the wonders of natural gardening – the typical inclination of gardeners who do not get into permaculture methods would be to keep caterpillars from eating the leaves of their various crops.  In the case of the fritillary butterflies, though, a few leaves are worth the trade-off; birds avoid the butterflies, whose bright orange wings serve as notice to the various jays and other marauding avians that the butterflies are mildly toxic.  As a consequence, birds typically leave passion vines (and therefore passion fruit) alone.

So, as a wonderful exemplar of more principles of natural gardening than we can count, we gladly present for your edification.. the humble maypop.

Happy farming!