BATS AND PASSIONFRUIT (Passiflora edulia, P. quadrangularis)

BATS AND PASSIONFRUIT
(Passiflora edulis, P. quadrangularis)

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Fujita (1991) states that species of flying foxes in Australia disperse the seeds of Passifloria edulis, the purple granadilla, and P. quadrangularis, the giant granadilla.

The New York Botanic Gardens Bat/Plant Database lists the seeds of P. quadrangularis as being dispersed by the Jamaican fruit bat, the big fruit bat and Pallas's spear-nosed bat.

Pallas's spear-nosed bat
(Phyllostomus hastatus)

Fujita (1991) says that in the Old World Tropics the fruit of P. quadrangularis is eaten fresh, cooked as a vegetable, candied and used to flavour ice cream and sherbet.

Passiflora edulis, Hawaii
Photograph courtesy of Forest & Kim Starr (USGS)

P. edulis in its yellow form is the basis of a commercial juice industry in Brazil, the country of its origin. The purple form is eaten fresh. (Morton, 1987)

There are commercial passionfruit plantings, many associated with the production of juice, in Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea,Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, India, Israel and many other countries.

Passiflora edulis, Hawaii
Photograph courtesy of Forest & Kim Starr (USGS)

The flowers are pollinated by bees, especially carpenter bees (Xylocopa megaxylocopa and X. neoxylocopa). Morton (1987) suggests that decaying logs among the vines encourages a resident population of carpenter bees. Flowers can be efficiently cross-pollinated by hand. The flowering plant is valued as a showy ornamental.

Passiflora edulis, Hawaii
Photograph courtesy of Forest & Kim Starr (USGS)

References:

Fujita, M.S. 1991. Flying Fox (Chiroptera:Pteropodidae) Pollination, Seed Dispersal, and Economic Importance: A Tabular Summary of Current Knowledge, Resource Publication No. 2, Bat Conservation International

Heywood, V.H., editor, 1979. Flowering Plants of the World, Oxford University Press

Morton, Julia, Fruits of Warm Climates, 1987; http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton

New York Botanical Gardens Bat/Plant Databases http://www.nybg.org/botany/tlobova/mori/batsplants/database/dbase_main.htm

Usher, George, A Dictionary of Plants Used by Man, Constable and Company Ltd, 1974

THE PLANT

Family: Passifloraceae

Genus: Passiflora

Species: P. edulis, P. quadrangularis

THE BATS

Pteropus species

Jamaican fruit bat (Artibeus jamaicensis)
Big fruit bat (Artibeus lituratus)
Pallas's spear-nosed bat (Phyllostomus hastatus)

Thank you to Forest and Kim Starr for access to their immense photographic library of plants growing in Hawaii and for permission to use their photographs of Passiflora edulis.

http://www.hear.org/starr/hiplants/images/index.html

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