Literally, the word ‘passion’ is derived from its Latin source ‘passio ‘ which means ‘to suffer’. In fact, passion indicates the sufferings on the cross and the death of Christ. In the world of flora, ‘passion-flower’ is any flower or plant of the genus Passiflora, consisting mostly of climbers of tropical and warm temperate America. Passiflora caerulea or ‘Constance Elliot’ is a white variant of the better-known blue passionflower. The plant has an active principle called Passiflorine, used as a drug; in fact, it is known to be a depressant, with narcotic properties that helps in diarrhoea and dysentery, neuralgia, sleeplessness and dysmenorrhoea.
The passionflower is a vigorous frost-hardy climber with deep green divided leaves, and beautiful scented white, blue, pink and cerise flowers with creamy filament. It is called ‘passion-flower’ due to parts of the flower resembling the crown of thorns, nails and other symbols of Christ’s suffering. The passionflower is associated with faith, holy love, religious fervour and superstition. It is a prominent Christian flower symbol as its pointed leaf resembles a spear, the tendrils the whips, the column of the ovary signifies the cross and the dark circle of threads in the centre the crown of thorns. The flower portrays the passion of Christ. If the flower were white, as in the ‘Constance Elliot’ variety, it denotes piety; blue means heaven. The three days’ life span of the flower is supposed to mean- “so shall the son of man be three days and nights in the heart of the earth”
Related Flowers : Tulips Flowers Strelitzias or Birds of Paradise Flowers Violets Flowers Sunflowers Flowers WallFlowers Flowers Sweet Peas or Lathyrus Flowers Zinnias Flowers Trachelliums Flowers Tulips Flowers Vandas Orchids
