permaculture

[lbsaltzman@aol.com]

It may well be a pest in some areas, but it is hardly useless:
 
Passionfruit is a good source of fiber. It relieves muscle tension and 
anxiety and is used to clam the nerves, headaches and muscle aches and 
spasms. Passion fruit is known to lower blood pressure and is especially 
useful for nervous insomnia. 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Marimike6@cs.com
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Thu, 15 Feb 2007 9:31 PM
Subject: Re: [permaculture] passion fruit allelopathy


I live in Wake County North Carolina, and have the most obnoxious patch of 
passion fruit you ever saw. In some areas of the planet it may control 
weeds-- I 

have no reason to doubt that in the tropics it may be allelopathic. And in 
other regions it certainly constitutes a beautiful exotic, when introduced 
for 
its showy flowers and carefully tended.

But around my place it just smothers everything. Such vines as I want to keep 
for ornament I have to train, so they don't strangle the other plantings. 
Fortunately I don't need a machete, as the stuff is shallow rooted and comes 
right up. But it has zero potential for controlling weeds. It can sprout amid 
a 
patch of healthy weeds and just head straight for the tree tops.

The fruit has a vaguely pleasant taste, although only a faint one (again, in 
tropical regions the flavor may well be stronger). And the flowers, as I 
said, 
are fabulous. But otherwise, this is one of the Lord's useless creations.
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