Luscious Color ~ Passion Flower

This is such a showy flower with its intense color! The etymology of the Passion Flower does not refer to love, however. Spanish missionaries from the 15th & 16th centuries adopted the physical structure of this complex plant to correlate with symbols of the Crucifixion. Interesting! This beauty was photographed at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, home to thousands of species of plants, animals, & insects.
(Photo courtesy of Ann Archer.)

See also: http://www.desertmuseum.org/