Cuphea appendiculata

Native from Mexico to Panama, it is a perennial subshrub with upright to spreading stems. It grows in forest margins, shaded moist places, steep slopes and ravines, including evergreen, deciduous and pine-oak forests. The stems carry fine hairs and longer bristles. Its leaves are broadly elliptical to lance-shaped with long, pointed tips. Flowers occur singly at the nodes or in terminal flowering clusters. Each has a slender tube about one to one and a half inches long, usually orange-red above and yellow-green beneath, two small red petals and projecting stamens. The fruits contain several seeds. Photographed in Panama.