The Blue Morning Glories of La Manga

On Sunday, March 22nd, Michel Salas crouched down into the thick vegetation of La Manga and found what the sanctuary had been quietly keeping to itself: a wild morning glory vine bearing trumpet-shaped flowers in shades of blue and violet, its tight green buds waiting their turn to open. It was a Convolvulaceae — likely an Ipomoea — creeping low and unhurried through dry grasses and tangled stems, as though it had always been there, and no one had simply thought to look. Michel photographed it twice: first from a distance, where the wash of color stands out against so much green; then with his hand gently lifting a branch to reveal the detail of the buds. That second photograph says everything — the plant, the hand, the dense growth behind. The find was geotagged at coordinates 10.444474°N, 75.257507°W, one more point on the living map of the sanctuary. Ipomoea are masters of disguise — they appear where least expected, climbing, trailing, blooming in blue while the rest of the hillside stays green — and Michel's record is a reminder that La Manga still has things to show, to anyone willing to bend down and look.