Passion Flower
This was just sent to me by the photog I know named AT . I can't explain it (i don't know) but the passion flower is called the passion flower because somehow the seven stations of the cross are represented in the flower . I used to have a passion flower in a greenhouse . It is a rapid growing vine of a plant . The one I had used to have hundreds of flowers on it . I finally got rid of it because it became a pest growing all over the place . AT said this is from his back yard so I guess he lives in a tropical area as the plant is not a winter hardy plant but grows like wildfire in a tropical area . allan
posted by sparky at 3:39 PM
3 Comments:
"Five petals & five sepals are ten apostles, leaving out Judas the betrayer & Peter because he denied knowing Jesus. The purple carolla Bosio reported had seventy-two filaments, the number of thorns in Jesus's crown. The three pistil stigmas are nails. The five stamens are the number of wounds, so that to this day, Catholics in South & Central America call it "The Flower of the Five Wounds." The leaf represents the spear that placed the wound in Jesus's side (that one is a stretch since the leaves are five-lobed, but unlike some other species, this one's individual lobes are at least lance-shaped). The dark spots under the leaves are the 33 pieces of silver paid to Judas. When the flowers are spent after a single day (the time Jesus spent on the cross), the petals do not drop from the vine but re-close over the ovary, & this symbolizes the Hidden Wisdom that constitutes the Mysteries of the Cross, & is like Jesus enclosed in the tomb.
"This rich symbolism was embellished by later authors so that the white petals came to represent the purity of Jesus, the palmate leaves the hands of his prosecutors, & the clinging tendrils the cords of Jesus's bondage (or the whips with which he was lashed). The fruit itself is the Earth for which Jesus promised salvation."
http://www.paghat.com/passiflorasymbolism.html
Thanks Kath , I can always count on you . allan
beautiful
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