A Cantua buxifolia flower has an orange tube, pink lobes, and projecting stamens and style against blue sky

Cantua buxifolia (Flower of the Incas)

Native to the Andes of Peru, Bolivia, and northern Chile, this evergreen perennial shrub grows about 7 to 13 feet tall, with arching stems that may need support. Small leaves surround hanging clusters of long, tubular flowers in magenta, pink, white, or yellow, sometimes with contrasting stripes. It is a national flower of Peru and Bolivia and holds the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit. In temperate gardens, it flowers mainly in spring. Peru lists it as Near Threatened. Photographed in the southern Andes of Peru.

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Cantua buxifolia flowers have orange-striped tubes and cream lobes edged in pink along leafy branches

A Cantua buxifolia flower has a yellow tube, pale cream lobes, and curled stamens beside a green calyx

A hanging Cantua buxifolia flower has an orange tube, red lobes, and projecting stamens with dark anthers

A Cantua buxifolia flower has a striped orange tube and cream lobes edged in pink beside unopened buds

A magenta Cantua buxifolia flower has pale anthers and a long style tipped with a purple stigma among green leaves

A hanging Cantua buxifolia flower has pink lobes, a pink tube, and projecting stamens with dark anthers

A Cantua buxifolia flower has pink lobes surrounding an orange-yellow throat beside small green leaves

A magenta Cantua buxifolia flower hangs below buds and green leaves with pale anthers and a long projecting style

Two Cantua buxifolia flowers have orange tubes, pink-red lobes, and projecting stamens against blue sky