Definition of "passionflower"

passionflower

noun
plural passionflowers
1. Any of very many vines, in North America and elsewhere, of the genus Passiflora that bear edible fruit called passion fruit, and showy flowers of a structure symbolic of the Passion of Christ.
  Quotations
  The Priests observed frequent fasts, and abstained at all times from certain animals and fruits, especially from the Granadilla, the fruit of the Passion-flower, because, say the lying Jesuits, of the mysteries which are signified in that marvellous blossom […]
  1810-19, Robert Southey, History of Brazil
2. The flower of this plant.