Revision of Passiflora Subgenus Decaloba ... - Passion Flowers

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semierect to erect flowers with coronal filaments that lack conspicuous banding
and possess a musky-sweet or scatole-like fragrance (MacDougal, 1983).
Several species of supersection Cieca also possess many of these
characteristics (e.g., P. eglandulosa, P. obtusifolia, P. pallida, P. suberosa ssp.
litoralis), and their pollination biology should be investigated further.
Moth pollination in Passiflora is very rare. MacDougal (1983) reported that P.
hahnii (E. Fourn.) Mast. in Veracruz, México is visited by moths. Kay (2001)
observed a sphingid moth pollinating the flowers of P. penduliflora in Jamaica,
though she concluded that the insects were infrequent pollinators of the species.
Goldman (2003, in press) found that P. arizonica (Killip) Goldman blooms in the
evening, has light colored flowers, a distinct fragrance and a relatively deep
hypanthium suggesting that moths are the pollinators of this desert plant.
Though not much is known about the biology of P. tridactylites, the flowers of this
species are greenish yellow with coronal filaments that are greenish yellow with a
dull red tinge toward the base, the androgynophore is very long, the anthers are
oriented perpendicular or nearly perpendicular to their filaments at anthesis, and
the staminal filaments spread but do not become fully perpendicular to the
androgynophore; the fragrance and flowering time are unknown. It seems that
this species is adapted to a larger pollinator than its relative, P. suberosa ssp.
litoralis, and MacDougal (pers. com.) found abundant Lepidoptera scales on the
inside of the flowers of P. tridactylites (Clark & Clark 207), indicating that many of
the unusual floral characters listed above for this species may be due to a shift to