Species
+

Passiflora tarminiana Coppens & V.E.Barney

Banana Poka, Banana passionflower, Banana passionfruit, Banana poka

Climate known 79 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Passiflora tarminiana is a species of passionfruit. The yellow fruits are edible and their resemblance to small, straight bananas has given it the name banana passionfruit in some countries. It is native to the uplands of tropical South America and is now cultivated in many countries. In Hawaii and New Zealand it is now considered an invasive species. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Passiflora tarminiana”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Passiflora

Passiflora, known also as the passion flowers or passion vines, is a genus of about 550 species of flowering plants, and the type genus of the family Passifloraceae.

Text from Wikipedia, “Passiflora”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Passifloraceae
Described by
Coppens & V.E.Barney
Native to
Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Guatemala +4
Wild records
527 in range· 104 open

At a glance

Warmest month
19°C
Aug, mean day; nights 9 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1335mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Apr 142 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–35DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to June and September to December at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 1335 mm a year, wettest April at 142 mm, driest January at 74 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 2.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to June and September to December at the habitat (not shifted)).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (982 mm of 1335 mm) takes 8 months, March to June and September to December. Mean temperature moves 1.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1335 mm a year, wettest April at 142 mm, driest January at 74 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1335 mm a year at the habitat, 982 mm of it March to June and September to December. Wettest month April at 142 mm, driest January at 74 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 941 mm to 2783 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 2.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 2.5 °C, the absolute minimum -0.8 °C, 8 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 8.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells 4.0 °C to 11.7 °C), warmest day 18.7 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 17 °C in Jan to 19 °C in Aug; mean night from 9 °C in Jan to 10 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1335 mm of rain a year, most in Apr. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 294 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -0.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 29.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost29.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-0.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 30–35RH 64–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 294 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C17 / 15–2018 / 15–2119 / 15–2218 / 15–2318 / 15–2318 / 15–2118 / 14–2119 / 15–2118 / 15–2118 / 15–2018 / 15–2017 / 15–20
Night °C9 / 4–129 / 5–129 / 5–1210 / 7–1210 / 7–1310 / 7–139 / 6–129 / 6–1210 / 7–129 / 6–129 / 6–129 / 5–12
Rain mm74 / 15–17694 / 14–193130 / 13–251142 / 30–302122 / 65–315116 / 48–28496 / 25–27589 / 27–272121 / 54–311130 / 73–320123 / 19–27498 / 9–207
DLI32 / 28–3533 / 28–3834 / 28–4432 / 26–4631 / 25–4431 / 25–3832 / 27–3835 / 30–3834 / 29–3933 / 28–3631 / 26–3530 / 27–34
RH %64 / 53–7164 / 51–7165 / 48–7166 / 50–7165 / 54–7165 / 60–7065 / 58–6964 / 57–6964 / 58–7065 / 61–7165 / 58–7265 / 55–71

Each figure is the median across the 294 grid cells holding the 509 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1465:1747 (16.725, -92.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 294 distinct grid cells holding the 509 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1465:1747 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 16.50_-92.500, lapse-corrected +710 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2177 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Guatemala, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru· introduced: Azores, Canary Is., Madeira, Sri Lanka, Hawaii, California, Mexico Central, El Salvador, Bolivia
Kew's description“liana” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-0.202, -78.479 · in the densest population, 337 records (64% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 527 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 104 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 158 km away. 969 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 18 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 527 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Passiflora tarminianaPassiflora tarminianaPassiflora tarminianaPassiflora tarminianaPassiflora tarminianaPassiflora tarminianaPassiflora tarminianaPassiflora tarminiana

Photographs: (c) Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Jon Sullivan, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Passiflora tarminiana, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Leaves, not roots or floral tissue, are the main site of rapid, external pressure-induced ABA biosynthesis in angiosperms
Feng‐Ping Zhang, Frances C. Sussmilch, David S. Nichols, Amanda Á. Cardoso (2018) · Journal of Experimental Botany
Passiflora tarminiana fruits reduce UVB-induced photoaging in human skin fibroblasts
Karent Bravo, Luisa Fernanda Duque, Federico Ferreres, Diego A. Moreno (2017) · Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B Biology
Variación morfológica de tres especies de curubas (Passiflora tripartita var. mollissima, P. tarminiana y P. mixta) y sus híbridos en el Valle del Cauca (Colombia)
Sophie Primot, Géo Coppens D'Eeckenbrugge, Vincent Rioux, John Albeiro Ocampo Pérez (2005) · Revista Brasileira de Fruticultura
Passiflora tarminiana, a New Cultivated Species of Passiflora subgenus Tacsonia (Passifloraceae)
Géo Coppens D'Eeckenbrugge, Victoria E. Barney, Peter M. Jørgensen, John M. MacDougal (2001) · Novon A Journal for Botanical Nomenclature
Passiflora tarminiana, a new cultivated species of Passiflora subgenus Tacsonia.
Géo Coppens D'Eeckenbrugge, Victoria E. Barney, Peter Møller Jørgensen, John M. MacDougal (2001)
First Report of Passiflora latent virus in Banana Passionfruit (Passiflora tarminiana) in New Zealand
Joe Tang, G. R. G. Clover, B. J. R. Alexander, B. D. Quinn (2008) · Plant Disease
Tolerancia a la salinidad de Passiflora tarminiana Coppens & Barney
Alejandro Hurtado Salazar, Danielle Fabíola Pereira da Silva, Nelson Ceballos-Aguirre, John Ocampo (2018) · Revista Colombiana de Ciencias Hortícolas
Physicochemical and Sensory Evaluation of Gummy Candies Fortified with Microcapsules of Guinea Pig (Cavia porcellus) Blood Erythrocytes and Tumbo (Passiflora tarminiana) Juice
Carlos A. Ligarda-Samanez, Eliana Villano-Limache, Williams Pichihua-Oscco, David Choque-Quispe (2025) · Applied Sciences
COLECCIÓN Y CARACTERIZACIÓN MORFOAGRONÓMICA DEL SUBGÉNERO TACSONIA EN LA ZONA ANDINA DEL DEPARTAMENTO DE NARIÑO, COLOMBIA
Óscar Checa Coral, Edwin Rosero Álvarez, Iván Eraso Cultid (2011) · Revista Facultad Nacional de Agronomía Medellín
Formulación de un Protector Solar Mediante el Uso de Potenciales Complejos Fotoprotectores de Origen Natural
Geovanna Lissette Coloma Coloma, Fernanda Carolina Guaygua Silva, Tatiana Mosquera (2024) · Ciencia Latina Revista Científica Multidisciplinar

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Passiflora 8 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 57 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.