Skip to main content

P. suberosa is a herbaceous vine that clings to other vegetation by means of tendrils. The striated angled stems are glabrous or pubescent with corky bark. The leaves are highly polymorphic but tend to be deeply 3-lobed, 2.8-10.7 cm long (at most 14 cm) and 1.4-4 cm wide (at most 9 cm);sometimes entire rather than 3-lobed with 0.3-1.5 cm petioles, 2 paired-stalked 1 mm nectaries;the 3-4 mm stipules are linear-lanceolate. The white campanulate flowers with purple base are without petals, 0.5-2.4 cm in diameter with 5 greenish-yellow or white sepals. Peduncles (usually paired) are 0.9-1.7 cm long with a 1 mm hypanthium. Globose berries are 0.6-1.9 cm in diameter (about the size of a pea), and dark purple when ripe (Wagner et al., 1999). Individual vines tend to grow 60 cm or longer, but the plant can grow 6 m tall (Gann et al., 2011;Invasive Species South Africa, 2013).

Related invasive species

  • Passiflora suberosa

Related Farm Practice

  • Plantations
  • Hosts
  • Invasive species
Impact

P. suberosa is a herbaceous vine that clings to other vegetation by means of tendrils. Native to South and Central America, P. suberosa has become invasive on Pacific Islands in Melanesia and Hawaii and is also extending its invasive range through parts of Southeast Asia, Australia, India and Africa. (Its purple fruits are attractive to birds, which serve as vectors for its spread. As an herbaceous vine, it grows rapidly, smothering and competing with native vegetation, particularly in the sub-canopy (Biosecurity Queensland, 2007). Although its growth and rate of spread does not match the more aggressively growing Passiflora species, such as P. mollissima or P. foetida, it is nonetheless increasingly recognized as an undesirable weed through its damage to native forest species (Richardson, 2007;Bohm, 2012). It has also been recorded as invading sugar cane and Eucalyptus plantations (Seeruttun et al., 2005).

Has Cabi datasheet ID
38805
Hosts

P. suberosa is capable of smothering large trees (Mootooka et al., 2003). Although primarily an environmental weed, it has been reported to invade sugar cane and Eucalyptus plantations (Seeruttun et al., 2005). Despite not being as serious an invader as the congeneric P. mollissima (banana poka), P. suberosa can smother other native forest plants, and the thick, corky stems can impose additional weight on plants infested by the climber (Bohm, 2012).

Oss tagged
x

Please add some content in Animated Sidebar block region. For more information please refer to this tutorial page:

Add content in animated sidebar