Passiflora pyrrhantha Harms (1926: 977)

Kuethe, J. R., Cornejo, Xavier, Garzón-Suárez, Henry X., Jiménez, Marco M., Wettges, Martin, Magdalena, Carlos, Mejía-Pazos, Nicanor, Flores, Juan Carlos Espín & Decoux, Jose, 2025, Passionflower trees of Ecuador: revising the presence of Passiflora subg. Astrophea (Passifloraceae) and including resolution to the P. putumayensis and P. macrophylla taxonomic complexes, Phytotaxa 697 (2), pp. 147-165 : 164

11. Passiflora pyrrhantha Harms (1926: 977) ( Figure 7e )

Type:— PERU. Loreto: Puerto Melendez. Pongo de Manseriche. Amazonian forests, 04°27’S 77°31’W, 250 m, December 1924 (fl.), G. Tessmann 4770 (holotype: MO 102319962).

Notes:—This and the following entry are very commonly confused for each other, in as a result that their distribution (deduced from the herbarium record) is greatly ambiguous and need to be studied up close. Passiflora pyrrhantha is distinct from P. spinosa (Poepp. & Endl. 1838: 181) Mast. (1871: 630) by its large, deep red flower, measuring 6–8 cm during anthesis (vs. 4–5 cm), making them the largest of all P. sect. Botryastrophea. The pollen, androgynophore and corona are all a similar orange-red in colour, whereas in some of the other members of this group the pollen or corona can feature rather yellow colours. The fruit appear as large, evenly green and ovoid-to-globose clusters at the end of a long pendent stalk. Having a somewhat scattered distribution, most confirmed specimens were seen coming from the provinces of Napo, Sucumbios and Pastaza.

Figures

FIGURE 7. Overview of the Ecuadorean Astrophea. All taken within Ecuador.A) P. trochlearis (by Juan C. Espín F.); B) P. skiantha (by Dawson White); C) P. tina (by Xavier Cornejo); D) P. tessmannii (by Henry Garzón-Suarez); E) P. pyrrhantha (by Xavier Cornejo); F) P. spinosa (by Sebastián Vizcarra).