A drooping flower cluster of golden dewdrop. Each small, five-lobed lavender-blue flower is streaked with deeper violet, and new buds keep opening at the tip
Looking up a palma de lluvia in Puerto Rico’s karst forest. The smooth, pale trunk narrows steadily toward the small crown of feather-shaped leaves held
A cultivated sierra palm in flower. The branched, creamy flower clusters hang from the trunk just below the leaves, and the older, darker cluster beside
The upright flower spike of wild plantain is a zigzag of stiff, boat-shaped red bracts, each edged in yellow and green. Photo: Patrice78500, via Wikimedia
In full bloom, vega blanca covers itself in long-tubed, creamy white flowers that age to pale yellow. Photo: Scott Zona, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY
The red, bristly cap on top of a mature Turk’s cap cactus is the cephalium, where all of the flowers and fruit are produced. Photo:
A leafy branch of laurel sabino collected at La Mina in the Luquillo Mountains, showing the large, leathery, broadly oval leaves and the stout twig
A leafless vanilla flower with pale yellow-green sepals and petals around a white, magenta-edged lip. Photo: Malcolm Manners, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0) Vanilla
Smallcane in fruit at the edge of a coastal forest behind Plage de Grande Anse, Guadeloupe. The slender, arching stems and narrow leaves give it
Clamshell orchid in bloom at Caín Alto, San Germán, in the hills of southwestern Puerto Rico. The dark, shell-shaped lip sits on top of each
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