White Flowers and Thorns Beneath the March Sun

Jorge Alcalá was walking through the understory of the reserve when he found, among the green and humid half-light, a modest cluster of four-petaled white flowers: Ruellia blechum, native to these hills, known better by the bees than by anyone else. It was the 29th of March and the afternoon heat pressed down, but there, in that shaded corner of the Fundación Loros, the plant was blooming without fanfare — as if it had always been waiting, quietly, to be written down. Further along, out in full sunlight, Jorge came upon a different plant: thorny, with oval leaves carrying that particular sheen belonging to plants hardened by relentless sun. There was a moment of uncertainty — Caesalpinia? another genus altogether? — until the team settled on Pithecellobium. The exact species remains open; for now the genus is enough, and the plant is logged with its mystery intact at coordinates 10.43985, -75.2576917. Two species, one walk, and the Sunday afternoon closing itself slowly over the reserve.