The Passion Flower

Nothing marks the passage of time quite like the flower. Here for a brief moment, sharing it's glory for all to see and then the flower's moment is gone. One reason I photograph flowers is to capture the beauty so it withstands time a little longer. You will see a lot of flowers and nature on my blog. It is hard to capture the entire essence in a photo..especially if there is a fragrance. In this case, I didn't notice a fragrance. However, I can write out what I did see, feel, smell and hear and sometimes taste.

The flower in this photo is unusual. The Passion flower is a vine like the clematis. The vine continually blooms for a long period of time. It is an interesting color combination. This vine was found blooming in the gardens at the Ballard Locks a couple of weeks ago. It was a climbing decoration on the entry and exit arbors to a little rose garden near the entry. The roses are pretty much spent now so to have the little flowers surpising me at the entrance and exit was a treat.

It's Sunday, what a great day to post an entry about the Passion flower....I've done some internet research on this flower so you could learn more.

Here is a post from one of the internet sites which talk about the passion flower:

http://www.passionflower.org/history.html 'Legend has it that in 1620 a Jesuit Priest came across the plant we now know as passion flower. Enthralled with its beauty, that night he had a vision likening its floral parts to the elements of the Crucifixion or Passion of Christ. The five petals and five sepals became the ten apostles (omitting Peter and Judas). The three pistils became the nails of the cross; the purple corona (or filaments) was the crown of thorns, and the stemmed ovary was the Lord's goblet.
There are over 460 known species of Passiflora. A marvelous book, Passion Flowers (2nd Edition), by John Vanderplantk, MIT Press, Cambridge, USA, 1996 describes 150 different species and has over 120 colored photos documenting the various species.'