Dresslerella caesariata

[Duane McDowell]

Photographed at Ecuagenera's main (cooler-growing) nursery in Gualaceo, Ecuador (near Cuenca).

[RosieC]

What an interesting one. A very hairy looking flower.

[Duane McDowell]

The whole plant is hairy on the Dresslerellas. In general, hairs on plants help to reflect light away from them, allowing the plants' internal temperatures to stay lower than that of the surrounding air. From the information I was able to find, these are pretty temperature-tolerant plants, so it must work! They certainly are vigorous growers for Ecuagenera...

[RosieC]

Cool, didn't know that about the reason for the hairs.

[Duane McDowell]

Hairs and red pigment on leaves are both common adaptations to high light - they're good examples of parallel evolution - you can see similar adaptations in many plant families in similar environments.

[ronaldhanko]

I have this but haven't bloomed it. The photo of all those plants is incredible, Duane.

[Duane McDowell]

Thanks for looking, Ron! I hope your plant blooms soon for you. It's a pretty thing...

[ronaldhanko]

Duane, I posted a few more things on the Flickr group for trading. Let me know if you're interested in any of them.