Butterfly and papaya, a spontaneous alliance

That Sunday in March, Michel Salas was walking through the sanctuary when a papaya flower stopped him in his tracks. The plant — a *Carica papaya* of the family Caricaceae — was in full bloom, its flowers open and fertile beneath the deep blue sky of ten in the morning. Perched among them, a butterfly that Michel identified as *Parides photinus* was carrying out its ancient office: moving from flower to flower laden with pollen, unhurried, with the quiet precision of one who has done the same thing for millions of years. A few steps further, another discovery caught him off guard: a chili plant (*Capsicum sp.*) that no one had sown, growing wild among the tropical vegetation, its small green fruits still firm and tight, peeking out between glossy leaves. Beside a rustic palm structure, the plant had decided on its own that this was its place. At Fundación Loros, nature sometimes doesn't wait to be asked.