biology

Passiflora suberosa

Passiflora suberosa is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Passiflora suberosa rather than just read about it. In short: Passiflora suberosa is a species of passionflower that is native to the Americas. It is commonly known as corkystem passionflower due to the corkiness of older stems.

Key takeaways

Passiflora suberosa belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Passiflora suberosa to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Passiflora suberosa from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Passiflora suberosa is a species of passionflower that is native to the Americas. It is commonly known as corkystem passionflower due to the corkiness of older stems. Other common names include corky passion vine, cork-bark passion flower, corkstem passionflower and corky passionfruit. In Latin America it is called Meloncillo. It is possibly also cryptic and have multiple species in one.

Description

Leaves and stems

It is a creeping or climbing perennial liana up to 6 meters long. It has suberous stems in its lower part, glabrous to puberulent. The leaves are simple, alternate, entire to three-lobed, with both sides glabrous, shiny green. They are 4 to 12 centimeters long when elliptical and up to 5 cm long and 7 cm wide when deeply lobed, sharp lobes, base rounded to truncated, glabrous to puberulent; petioles 0.5–4 cm long, with a pair of conspicuous and stipitate glands in upper half; linear stipules. The plant is known for the fact that the leaves on one and the same plant vary greatly in shape and size. Another well-known phenomenon is that the lower part of the trunk becomes corky with aging.

Flowers and fruit The melliferous flowers are solitary or in pairs, and grow in the leaf axils. Greenish or yellowish in color, they have 5 lanceolate sepals, but no petals. Flowering takes place from late summer to late winter. The inedible fruit is not hardy and transitions from green to indigo, purple and, lastly, black as it ripens. The glabrous fruits contain a multitude of tiny seeds in a dark blue pulp, which are dispersed by birds. (Not able to verify original reference(6). Forms .org/.edu reference this particular fruit as edible for people but may not have the best of flavor depending on ripeness.)

Range Its range stretches from Florida and the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas in the United States south through Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean to South America. In 1909, it was introduced in Polynesia and Australia. It is extremely prolific (up to 1000 seeds per square meter), smothering any vegetation it grows on, including trees. In New Caledonia, it is prohibited to introduce the species into the wild.

Reproduction Many clones of the plant are self-pollinating. In winter, the plant is hardy down to temperatures around 7 °C. It can be propagated by sowing or cuttings. This species is a host plant for the caterpillars of the Gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae), Julia heliconian (Dryas iulia), Mexican silverspot (Dione moneta), red postman (Heliconius erato), and zebra heliconian (Heliconius charithonia). It is a larval host plant for the glasswing butterfly (Acraea andromacha) in Australia.

References

External links Media related to Passiflora suberosa at Wikimedia Commons Data related to Passiflora suberosa at Wikispecies

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Passiflora suberosa

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Passiflora suberosa claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Passiflora suberosa before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Passiflora suberosa ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Passiflora suberosa

In research: Passiflora suberosa appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Passiflora suberosa in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Passiflora suberosa is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Botanical taxa named by Carl Linnaeus, Butterfly food plants, Flora of Central America, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Passiflora suberosa outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Passiflora suberosa in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Passiflora suberosa means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Passiflora suberosa out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Passiflora suberosa in simple terms?

Passiflora suberosa is a species of passionflower that is native to the Americas. It is commonly known as corkystem passionflower due to the corkiness of older stems.

Why does Passiflora suberosa matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Passiflora suberosa?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Passiflora suberosa.