Passion Fruit

Also Passionfruit, Maracuja, Maracudja, Purple Granadilla

Native to Brazil, the passion fruit has adapted to environments around the globe, the purple fruit thriving in temperate climates, the yellow and related red and violet forms in tropical and subtropical. Fruit fanciers in Australia, New Zealand, South America, Central America, Hawaii, Kenya, South Africa, New Guinea, Taiwan, and India devour Passiflora species and the juice squeezed from them in substantial amounts (recent figures give world-wide annual production at roughly 8½ million pounds). Yet, despite the fact that passion fruit was introduced into Florida more than ninety years ago, and continues to be raised there and in California (though not on a commercial scale in either state), it is far from a household word in this country.