Its leaves are palmately lobed, and its fragrant flowers are blue-white with a prominent fringe of coronal filaments in bands of blue, white, yellow, and brown.

[7] Passiflora caerulea is a woody vine capable of growing to 25 metres (82 ft) high where supporting trees are available.

[9] The base of each leaf has a flagellate-twining tendril 5–10 centimetres (2.0–3.9 in) long, which twines around supporting vegetation to hold the plant up.

[8] The flower is complex, about 10 centimetres (3.9 in) in diameter,[9] with the five sepals and petals similar in appearance, whitish in colour, surmounted by a corona of blue or violet filaments, then five greenish-yellow stamens and three purple stigmas.

[10] A number of cultivars have been produced from the species: Compared to Passiflora incarnata, this plant contains higher amounts of the MAO-inhibitor harmine.