Origin and cultivation of the yellow passion fruit
To the Old World, passion fruit only became known after America was discovered, with the first reference to a plant of this group published in 1553, by the Spanish Cieza de León, who mentioned the "granadilla" (P. ligularis Juss. – Kugler & King, 2004). The name Passiflora only appeared in 1651, with Frederico Cesi, although the resemblance with the Passion of Christ had already been pointed out by Nicolás Monardes, in 1569 (Harms, 1925; Kugler & King, 2004). That generic name was adopted by Linnaeus (1753) when he laid the foundations for the botanical nomenclature. Until then, only the Indians could taste those fruits, which would soon be popular among the first discoverers (Inglez de Souza & Meletti, 1997).