Centropogon cornutus is native to northern South America. It grows as an evergreen, scrambling shrub or lax subshrub. Plants commonly reach several feet tall with arching, somewhat woody shoots that bear solitary, pendent flowers from the leaf axils. The flowers are distinctive: a downward-facing, strongly curved tube about 1½–3 in long that widens near the mouth into five short lateral lobes; just behind the mouth sit small, often colored lobes and a firm, persistent calyx. The most conspicuous feature is the exserted staminal column that ends in a white, bristly “beard”—hairs on the anthers that serve as a pollen-presentation brush when the style elongates. Color varies by population but most plants show rosy to red tubes with pale throats and contrasting bracts. Photographed in Ecuador and the central Andes mountain range of Colombia.