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P. foetida is a branched annual or perennial herbaceous vine 1-5 m tall with an annual or perennial woody tap root. Most parts of the above ground plant carry distinctive glandular hairs, the tips of which secrete a distinctively odorous substance. The plant scrambles or climbs by means of tendrils, and spreads only by seed.
Stems 1-5 m long, branched, herbaceous, round, green and finely hairy.
Leaves single, alternate, stipules to 1 cm long and divided into hair-like segments, petiole 2-10 cm long without nectary glands, blades 5-15 cm long, 3 or 5 lobed, the base cordate, the edges generally fringed with glandular hairs, the veins prominent, pale green and often finely hairy.
Tendrils leaf-opposed, unbranched, coiling and grasping.
Flowers solitary in upper leaf axils, peduncle 3-5 cm long, bracts 2-4 cm long and deeply divided into hair-like segments that surround the flower and fruit, sepals 5, greenish petals 5, blunt, white to pale purple or pinkish, 3-5 cm across surrounding a 2-rowed corona of purplish filaments, 5 stamens spreading at the top of a column, styles 3.
Fruits oval, 2-3 cm long, smooth, enclosed in hairy bracts. At first fleshy and green, maturing dry and yellow or orange to red, sometimes spotted, even pale green (Amela Garcia, unpublished data).
Ripe seeds blackish, flattened, wedge-shaped, 3-4 mm long, irregularly ridged, surrounded by a transparent aril.
Seedlings with epigeal germination. Hypocotyl 8-12 mm long, hairless, light green. Cotyledons shortly stalked, oblong, light green, 8-12 mm long, hairless, strongly veined. Juvenile leaves single, ovate, irregularly lobed, 12-14 mm long, with glandular hairs on margins and stalks. Seedlings foetid when crushed.

Related invasive species

  • Passiflora foetida

Related Farm Practice

  • Pastures
  • Light
  • Plantations
Impact

The following summary is from Witt and Luke (2017)

Has Cabi datasheet ID
38800
Hosts

P. foetida occurs in a very wide range of crops, pastures and plantations.

Oss tagged
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