I never realised the meaning of the name of this flower until last year when I bought one for my mother in law.
Apparently "Passion" has nothing to do with love but refers to the passion of Christ
When this flower was discovered by Spanish Christian missionaries they used the flower's "design" as a symbol of the Crucifixion.
Quote "The radial filaments which can number more than a hundred and vary from flower to flower represent the Crown of Thorns. The ten petals and sepals represent the ten faithful apostles. The top 3 stigmata represent the 3 nails and the lower 5 anthers represent the 5 wounds."
In Spain the flower is known as Espina de Cristo (Christ's Thorn) and in Germany it was once known as Muttergottes-Schuzchen (Mother-of-God's Star).
I think I'll just call it the Passion Flower.
