Colombian native Hardest to find abroad

Granadilla Silvestre

Passiflora guatemalensis

Granadilla silvestre (also granadilla abovedada)

Granadilla Silvestre botanical illustration

Field guide

🗓️ Season

● peak · ○ available · — scarce

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🗺️ Where it grows

Native from southern Mexico and Central America to Colombia and Venezuela.

Elsewhere in the world: Barely leaves Colombia — beyond the border it grows mostly wild in lowland Central America, the Caribbean lowlands and the northern Andes.

Altitude: 1,000–2,000 m

01k2k3k4k5k m

MedellínBogotáCartagenaCaliLeticia

Andes

Andean cloud forests of Antioquia, Caldas and Quindío.

👀 Look

Rounder and smaller than common granadilla, with a thick greenish shell that ripens between yellow and green and a domed (abovedada) top. Same jelly-seed interior in miniature.

👃 Aroma

Mild, green-floral.

👅 Taste

Between acid and sweet — brighter than a granadilla, gentler than a gulupa.

Sweetness: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆

🍽️ How to eat it

Cracked and slurped fresh, when someone's lucky enough to find them — this is a semi-wild fruit that appears at market stalls irregularly.

🧃 Drinks

Too scarce to be a juice fruit.

🏪 Buying tips

Take what you find; it's never guaranteed. Choose fruit heavy for its size.

💰 Price

Variable and seasonal — expect granadilla-like per-fruit prices. Ask the vendor.

🌎 Local lore

The species carries the name of Guatemala, where the American botanist Sereno Watson gathered the specimens that formally introduced it to science in the 1880s. Finding one at a Medellín stall is a small botanical event — it's a semi-wild fruit that never made the jump to organized farming.

⚠️ Watch out

None — same easy eating as granadilla.

🎉 Fun fact

Its scientific name honors Guatemala, where the type specimens were collected — a passionfruit named after a country. It belongs to the subgenus Decaloba, the small-flowered passionflowers, a different lineage from the big-flowered granadillas and maracuyás.

⭐ Worth trying?

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ If you spot it, buy it — you may never see it again.