Blakea glandulosa

Endemic to Ecuador, this shrub or small tree can climb and often grows on other trees as an epiphyte. In Ecuador, it occurs in Amazonian and lower Andean forests between about 1,300 and 7,550 feet. Its young stems, leaf stalks, and flower bracts are densely covered in gland-tipped hairs. The flowers have six pale-pink petals and a ring of dark-purple anthers. Numerous slender, fleshy appendages surround the base of the style at the flower’s center. Photographed in eastern Ecuador.