Cavendishia pubescens bears white tubular flowers beneath red bracts beside exposed red calyces with projecting styles

Cavendishia pubescens

Native to Panama and the Andes from Venezuela to Bolivia, this evergreen shrub in the heath family grows in soil or on trees and usually reaches about 3 to 16 feet tall. In Colombia, it is recorded between about 3,300 and 9,800 feet. Soft hairs cover the young branches and persist beneath the prominently veined leaves. Its tubular flowers are white, sometimes becoming pink with age, and are surrounded by pale pink to rose-red bracts. The small berries have a fine covering of hairs. In Colombia, the plant is used for food, animal forage, and ecological restoration. Photographed in Colombia’s eastern Andes.

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A Cavendishia pubescens cluster has white tubular flowers beneath magenta bracts beside exposed pink calyces and long styles

Young Cavendishia pubescens leaves are narrow and copper-orange beside pink buds on a reddish branch

Two Cavendishia pubescens clusters have white flowers surrounded by rose-red bracts beside narrow veined leaves

Cavendishia pubescens has white tubular flowers with flared tips beneath overlapping deep pink bracts

Pale pink Cavendishia pubescens bracts overlap around several small white tubular flowers

A small Cavendishia pubescens cluster has cream-white flowers, red bracts, and exposed red calyces with slender styles

Two white Cavendishia pubescens flowers hang beneath overlapping pale pink bracts beside narrow green leaves

A tall Cavendishia pubescens shrub bears many pink flower clusters among narrow green leaves beneath an overcast sky

A Cavendishia pubescens shrub bears scattered pink flower clusters on long leafy branches against dense vegetation

A Cavendishia pubescens shrub covered in pink flower clusters grows among ferns and other dense foliage