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Tennessee recognized the passion flower (genus Passiflora) as the official state flower in 1919. In 1939 the iris was also named the state flower. In 1973 legislation was passed designating the passion flower as the state wildflower and the iris as the state cultivated flower.
Squiggly tendrils of a passion flower (Passiflora incarnata) -
photo © Rhys (JustUptown) - on Flckr - noncommercial
use permitted with attribution / no derivative works
Also known as the maypop, wild apricot and the ocoee, passion flowers grow wild in the southern United States and South America. Ocoee is the Indian name for the passion flower (also used in the name of the Ocoee River and valley in Tennessee and the city of Ocoee in Florida). American Indians considered ocoee the most beautiful of flowers.
Passion flowers photo © Mo Elnadi on Flckr -
noncommercial use permitted with attribution
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