Passiflora tarminiana is a high climbing vine with hairy stems and petioles.

The base of the flower has pale green bracts enclosing a swollen nectary chamber.

Mollissima and its close relative Passiflora mixta are vines with cylindrical stems densely coated with yellow hairs, and are vigorous climbers, growing up to seven metres.

The fruit is yellow-orange when ripe and contains a sweet edible orange-colored pulp with black seeds.

The sepals and petals in P. tarminiana are perpendicular to the floral tube or are reflexed, whereas they are never so open in P. tripartita var.

Common names for P. tarminiana include banana passionfruit (Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Hawaii), curuba India, curuba ecuatoriana, curuba quiteña (Colombia), tacso amarillo (Ecuador), tumbo (Perú), banana pōka (Hawaii) (in the Hawaiian language the word pōka'a refers to tendrils – "that which is tied up in a ball like rope or twine"), northern banana passionfruit (New Zealand).

It is found in the Colombian highlands and the Venezuelan, Peruvian and southern Ecuadorean Andes where it is cultivated from around 2000 – 3000 metres.

[2][4] It is widely cultivated throughout the world, including California, Réunion, Mexico, Panama and Papua New Guinea.

[1] Unlike many Passiflora species, P. tarminiana is self-compatible, although self-pollination is not considered important in the wild.

The main pollinators in South America are believed to be hummingbirds or large bees, while in Hawaii birds were commonly observed robbing nectar but not transferring pollen.

By far the most important disperser in Hawaii is the feral pig, which eats the fallen fruit and passes the seeds intact.

Because their home range is typically one to two square miles, pigs contribute more to the peripheral expansion of P. tarminiana patches than long-distance dispersal.

[citation needed] Passiflora tarminiana and P. tripartita thrive in the climate of New Zealand.

[7] Banana passionfruit vines are now smothering more than 200 square miles (520 km2) of native forest on the islands of Hawaii and Kauai.

Regrowth from beneath the graft is one means of its outbreak as a weed, so growers should be vigilant for sprouting low on the main stem or from around the base of the plant, and should pull up and cut back the plant when (typically after 6–9 years) the grafted passionfruit is no longer as productive.

[5] Two moth species were also introduced, Cyanotricha necryia, which failed to establish, and Pyrausta perelegans, which suffered substantial levels of egg parasitism and has not become common.

[13] Passiflora tarminiana is controlled by land management agencies in some areas of New Zealand.

The Septoria species from Hawaii was tested in containment in New Zealand and found to damage Passiflora edulis which is grown commercially.