Passiflora incarnata is native .

Here is a link that might be useful: Passiflora species/HortiPlex

Thank You..I guess I looked at the wrong site to find information about this...The pictures on the first site you gave me "native" is the exact flower I have, Passiflora incarnata, purple passion flower..It is not blooming anymore. I moved one into my flower garden, originally it appeared to be dead but has come back and is thriving...No blooms though...matter of fact it is growing all over the place. I cannot seem to get it to climb, so it is just growing along the ground. Any advice anyone may have about this plant...would be greatly appreciated..

they can become weedy by sending out underground runners some distance from the original plant so maybe put it where you don't mind when it does. the flowers are lovely and complex. it is a host plant for a butterfly larvae (the gulf fritillary, i think) and you can eat the fruit(seed capsules inside) when it ripens after the skin turns yellowish green and shrivels somewhat. they will die to the ground in winter and return from the roots in late spring.

I grew up in NE Alabama and hoed many a row of cotton. We had to weed out passion flowers (Maypops) and would beg my father to let us leave some for the fall when we could "pop" the fruit with our feet. I have always loved the flower. As a little girl, my sister and I would make "dolls" from the flower. Neat native plant. I don't know how it got started here. That would be a good research project. I think Kudzo was brough here from China or Japan as an irragation plant. What a disaster!

linda2222

According to the USDA Plants database, here is the "natural" distribution for passionflower in AL.

Here is a link that might be useful: Distribution

Linda2222...sounds like you and I grew up in the same area. I grew up on Sand Mountain and we had Passionflower there, as well. I always loved the story of how the stamen represented the 5 loaves and 2 fishes in the Bible. We had Maypop wars...yup...sometimes it wasn't too pleasant but it was a lot of fun!

Beverly