A native of tropical America, the giant granadilla is a fast growing vine climbing trees up to 45 m in the tropics. It prefers warm days and nights and cold winters have been known to kill well established vines. It requires a deep, fertile, moist, but well drained soil. Extremely alkaline soils have killed this plant.
The fruit is the largest of the passionfruits. It is pleasantly aromatic and melon - like and can grow up to 15 cm wide and 30 cm long. The flesh is eaten from the skin and is also used in fruit salads. It is cooked in sugar but is so bland that it requires lime or lemon juice as a flavouring.
The unripe fruits are used in soups and eaten both steamed and boiled, usually with butter, nutmeg and pepper as a garnish. The juice is used in cold drinks and wines. The roots of old vines are eaten roasted or baked like yams.
The pulp contains passiflorine which if consumed in large doses can cause lethargy and drowsiness. The fruit is used medicinally as a preventative for scurvy and as a stomachic. The flesh has been used as a sedative for relief of headache, asthma, diarrhoea and dysentry, neurasthenia and insomnia. The seeds are cardiotonic, sedative and also narcotic in large doses.
The leaf decoction is a vermifuge and is used for bathing skin problems. In liver complaints, poultices of the leaves are used. The root is used as a vermifuge, emetic and diuretic. It is used as a soothing poultice when powdered and mixed with oil.