Orthrosanthus chimboracensis

Native to Chiapas in southern Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama, and the Andes from Colombia and northwestern Venezuela to Bolivia, it is a perennial herb that grows from underground rhizomes and forms tufts. In Colombia it occurs in the Andes and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, including páramo grasslands. Its blue to violet flowers have six spreading segments and three stamens with yellow anthers. The plant is traditionally used to make baskets in the páramos of Zuleta, Ecuador. Photographed in the eastern Andes mountain range of Colombia.