Passiflora quadrangularis L.
ആകാശവെള്ളരി


Family: PASSIFLORACEAE
Sub-Family: Not available
English Name: Giant Granadilla
Synonym: Passiflora macrocarpa Mast.
Common Name: Not available
Flowering & Fruiting Period: November-April
Distribution: Native of Tropical America
Habitat: Grown as vegetables
Uses: Fruit edible- raw, cooked or used to make drinks. The root is diuretic, emetic, narcotic and vermifuge. It contains passiflorine, an anthelmintic that also causes lethargy. When powdered and mixed with oil, the root is used externally as a soothing poultice. The leaves are powdered and mixed with oil then used externally as a soothing poultice. They are also used in this form to treat liver complaints. The fruit is antiscorbutic and stomachic. The rind of the fruit is sedative. It is used in the treatment of headaches, asthma, diarrhoea, dysentery, neurasthenia and insomnia.
Key Characteristics: Climbing shrubs; stem stout, 4-angular, the angles distinctly winged. Leaves alternate, broadly ovate, margin entire. Calyx tube campanulate, lobess ovate, concave, colour variable. Petals oblong-ovate or oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, white with deeply pink or purple tinged. Coronal processes 5-seriate, 2 outer series subequal filamentous, 3rd series tubercular, and 4th filamentous, innermost series membranous. Operculum membranous, inclined inward; limen annular, fleshy; gynophore with 2 annular processes below. Ovary ovoid. Fruit oblong.