La Casa Plantada Awakens in March

Gerard O'Neill arrived at La Casa Plantada with camera in hand and found a corner that seemed to have burst into bloom all at once. In a single walk, he recorded 14 species: the bougainvillea in its fierce purple — already living there long before anyone thought to name it — the slender corozo palm cut against a blue sky, the banana tree with its tender bunch and pink flower hanging like a lantern, and a Cordia alba — the uvito of the family Boraginaceae — heavy with green fruits clustered along its branches. The most unexpected sight was the Sansevieria in flower. This mottled-leaved plant, which can go years without any sign of blooming, appeared with a spray of yellow-green flowers and stamens fine as threads. Nearby, the cannas were showing their colors: one salmon-orange, cradled between Gerard's fingers; another rose-red, its buds still sealed shut. There was also what looked like a carambola with its fruits just beginning to form, and a shrub whose leaves had been riddled by some insect — a small detail that the lens refused to overlook. La Casa Plantada woke that Sunday, March 22nd, with several species flowering and fruiting at the same time, as though the whole corner of the reserve had agreed, quietly and all at once, to put everything on display.