Achimenes hybrid

This cultivated hybrid is a tender herbaceous perennial grown for its brightly colored flowers. Garden hybrids offer upright or trailing growth and a wide range of flower colors, with single and double forms. Their small, scaly underground stems store reserves through a dormant period, when the leafy shoots usually die back. New shoots emerge from these rhizomes when growth resumes, and dividing the rhizomes preserves a cultivar’s characteristics. Many hybrids descend from Mexican and Central American species. Photographed in the department of Quindío, Colombia.