The name comes from sixteenth-century Spanish missionaries in South America who read the Passion into the architecture of the flower: the corona a crown of thorns, the three stigmas the nails, the five stamens the wounds. Whatever one makes of the reading, the flower is a genuine piece of engineering, and the native maypop, Passiflora incarnata, produces one of the most elaborate blooms of any hardy plant in North America.

The maypop is a Southeastern native, dying to the ground each winter and returning from deep running roots, then climbing fast through summer with lavender-and-white flowers and an egg-shaped fruit that is edible and pops underfoot, which is where the common name comes from. Passionflowers are also the host plants for gulf fritillary and zebra longwing butterflies, so expect the leaves to be eaten and count that a success. One honest caution: the roots run, and a maypop will come up several feet from where you set the plant. Give the vine a fence, a wild edge, or a container.