# When you were a kid, did you mutilate maypops? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 1, 2020, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-did-you-mutilate-maypops/917005 "2020-08-01T18:38:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2020, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-did-you-mutilate-maypops/917005/1 "2020-08-01T18:38:40Z")
_Poll ([view on site](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-did-you-mutilate-maypops/917005/1))_ When I was a kid maypops/passionfruit grew wild in fields, and I used to break off parts of the flower to make it into a person holding “bread and butter”, something that my grandmother taught me to do. I’m wondering how local or widespread that activity is/was. [[Album] imgur.com ![](https://i.imgur.com/KEGRnd7.jpeg?fb "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/a/dNS1skJ) ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2020, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-did-you-mutilate-maypops/917005/2 "2020-08-01T19:16:03Z")
Nope. They don’t grow in [this part of the country](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passiflora_incarnata#/media/File:Passiflora_incarnata_map.jpg), or apparently in the upper midwest or on the west coast either. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2020, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-did-you-mutilate-maypops/917005/3 "2020-08-01T19:42:01Z")
I thought you were talking about a common light purple flower with tight buds you could squeeze to make a noise like popping bubble wrap. They are all over the place here in Chicago. Does anyone know the name? ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2020, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-did-you-mutilate-maypops/917005/4 "2020-08-01T20:39:41Z")
No but I used to lick honeysuckles. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2020, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-did-you-mutilate-maypops/917005/5 "2020-08-01T20:47:03Z")
They must have been around when I was growing up in MD and PA, but I’ve never heard of this. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-did-you-mutilate-maypops/917005/6 "2020-08-02T00:37:39Z")
Small correction, the name is a synonym for passion_flower_, not passion_fruit_. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-did-you-mutilate-maypops/917005/7 "2020-08-02T01:26:57Z")
I thought you were talking about tennis shoes. We called cheap shoes, Maypops. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-did-you-mutilate-maypops/917005/8 "2020-08-02T02:24:36Z")
We _done_ the passion fruit! Never heard of Maypops, but we used to have some kind of grass plant that looked like a tiny avocado on a very long stalk and we’d take off the bottom few inches of the stalk and shoot the avocado part like a slingshot. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-did-you-mutilate-maypops/917005/9 "2020-08-02T04:14:12Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Small correction, the name is a synonym for passion_flower_, not passion_fruit_. And a correction on my correction–they [really](https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/vines/passion-flower/grow-maypops-in-the-garden.htm) [are](https://www.burpee.com/fruit/specialty-fruits/passionflower-maypops-prod003340.html) a type of passionfruit, as I originally thought. > **[Maypops For All](https://edibleupcountry.ediblecommunities.com/eat/maypops-all)** > > The Modern Hunter Gatherer Plucking Our Native Passionfruit from Obscurity I can’t figure out why everyone in the continental United States doesn’t know we have a native passionfruit. It should be in every produce section next to the bananas and in... ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-did-you-mutilate-maypops/917005/10 "2020-08-02T04:50:28Z")
No, but when I was about 4, I went all over the neighborhood and picked all the snapdragons. And made them all “snap”. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-did-you-mutilate-maypops/917005/11 "2020-08-02T04:52:59Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Nope. They don’t grow in [this part of the country](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passiflora_incarnata#/media/File:Passiflora_incarnata_map.jpg), or apparently in the upper midwest or on the west coast either. They can grow in Western Oregon. There are some in our neighborhood that act rather like invasive species. When there’s a hard freeze, they get knocked back, but still keep coming back. A neighbor had some growing on their fence, and it invaded our yard, requiring lots of effort to control. To answer the OP question, I grew up in an area where it grows, but never heard of what you described. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2020, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-did-you-mutilate-maypops/917005/12 "2020-08-09T02:49:22Z")
But **of COURSE** we mutilated… er… what’s a maypop? ---
**Author:** ![PoppaSan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/poppasan/32/189_2.png) [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-did-you-mutilate-maypops/917005/13 "2020-08-10T01:43:38Z")
She loves me. She loves me not. She loves me. She loves me not. She loves me. She loves me not. She loves me. She loves me not. She lo… Oh wait, this is was a daisy ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-did-you-mutilate-maypops/917005/14 "2020-08-10T19:29:05Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](#): > > They are all over the place here in Chicago. Does anyone know the name? Hostas. As a kid, we called them poppy plants. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2020, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-did-you-mutilate-maypops/917005/15 "2020-08-11T11:40:21Z")
We called them “skips”.