This is a wild weed that is slowly disappearing from our disturbed grass lands. It is non-aesthetic in appearance and people seldom pay attention to this plant and its obscurity. In comparison to other ornamental Passiflora flowers, the small flowers pale in size and colour although the flower design is equally interesting.However, it is an important host plant for the Leopard Lacewing butterfly. In fact, this plant has become so important to me because this butterfly is a permanent feature of our Butterfly Garden enclosure.
So I had this plant grown in a few areas of HortPark. Previously a batch of these plants at the Recycling Garden was growing very well but after our introduction of the butterfly pupae to this cluster, they completely decimated this plant. We learnt that there are 2 variations of this plant - a smooth-leaved one and a hairy leaved one. Apparently, it peseems the butterfly only prefers the smooth-leaved type.
Anyway, these photos were taken on 25 Feb 10 and there was a lot of developed fruits. Some fruits were ripe enough for collection for propagation. See the interesting fruit wrapped around by this mass of modified feathery leaves. Hmm, they reminded me of something.
