Green egg or maypop?

It may look like a large green egg hanging by a thin thread attached to a three-lobed leaf, but it's really the fruit of the passionflower plant (Passiflora incarnata), commonly known as maypop.

Maypop vines grow wild in the woods and fields of Central Florida.  On our property, this Florida native is ubiquitous. I find the perennial plant mixed in with brambles, climbing the lower limbs of oak and pine trees, sprawling across grasses and popping up among wetland plants near the lake and marshes.

Maypops or passionfruit develop from beautiful and intricate-looking passionflowers.  In addition to providing edible fruit for human and wildlife consumption, passionflower vines are the host plants for Gulf fritillary and Zebra longwing butterflies. Beauty with a purpose.