Photo Essay Photo Essay

Photographer: Peter Jørgensen

Habitat: Neotropical forest

The family grows in all the tropics and in many warm temperate areas, from humid rain forests to deserts along a humidity gradient, and from humid rain forest to temperate and montane forests along a temperature gradient. The highest diversity is found in Colombia's montane rain forests. The family can be found from the U.S. to Chile and Argentina, and from sub-Saharan Africa to Malaysia, Viet Nam, China, Australia, and New Zealand. Two species are native to Missouri. Species are known at 4000 m above sea level, but most inhabit warmer tropical forests like this near Lita, Ecuador. Many tropical forests are being converted to agriculture, but many species of passiflora are able to maintain a presence in fences and small forest remnants.