The Uvita Mocosa in Two Acts

On the Loma del Alcón, Michel Salas and Jorge Alcalá came across a Cordia dentata doing what few trees allow themselves to do at the same time: flowering and fruiting at once. The uvita mocosa, as it is known along these trails, wore two moments of its life on the same branches — tight green fruits clustered together, gleaming under the March sun, and others already further along, carrying that white-cream hue that signals ripeness, hanging loosely among the leaves. The clear blue sky of that Sunday made for a fine contrast with the greens of the sector, and the tree seemed indifferent to any observer, unhurried in its phenology. There was no fauna that day — no birds, no insects recorded — only the plant going about its business, and two researchers attentive enough to document it. The photographs captured both states with clarity: the green promise of the immature clusters and the pale fruit that had already traveled some distance along its path. Let it be noted in the logbook: the Loma del Alcón has its Cordia dentata in full swing, and Michel and Jorge were there to witness it.