Tecoma fulva

Native from Peru through Bolivia to northwestern Argentina and northern Chile, it is a shrub or small tree of seasonally dry valleys and slopes. Orange trumpet-shaped flowers open in terminal clusters, with deeper orange-red tubes and five rounded lobes. Several recognized subspecies occupy different parts of its Andean range. Its nectar feeds hummingbirds. In Bolivia’s dry Andean valleys, giant hummingbirds visit the flowers, while other visitors may pierce the flower tubes to take nectar without pollinating them. Photographed in Colombia.