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In Central America, people may not send roses on Valentine's Day, but instead send out another, more exotic plant to express their love. Its biggest feature is that it will grow two "lips" that look very attractive.
So red, what color number? | Wiki
Because of its gorgeous red lips, the plant is called psychotria elata, and some people call it "girlfriend's kiss" and "hook lips". And it looks so much like a human mouth that it's hard to imagine that it's actually a creature of nature.
However, the name "lip flower" is more misleading. Because the bright red lips are not its real flowers, just its bracts. Its true flower is a small white flower that grows out from the middle of the two lips.
Lips are not flowers, what is in the lips is flowers. | Wiki
Bracts are not petals, they are metamorphosed leaves, leaves that grow to protect flowers and fruits.
This "metamorphosis" is not what we usually call "metamorphosis", but a true metamorphosis: plants are affected by the environment, resulting in changes in morphological structure. Just as lotus roots are metamorphic stems and radishes are metamorphosis roots, bracts are leaves that have changed shape.
Carrots are a metamorphosis root. | Pixabay
And like the lip flower, it is not uncommon for bracts to look better than flowers. Common like the leaf flower (Bougainvillea spectabilis), its typical three bracts are rich in color, always mistaking people for petals, so it is also called bougainvillea.
The three bracts of the bougainvillea are really not flowers, but (metamorphosis) leaves. | Pixabay
There are also plants of the Celestial Family such as calla lilies, which have a variety of magical and beautiful Buddha flame buds. Its real flowers, on the other hand, are densely arranged on the inflorescence of flesh in the middle.
The white funnel-shaped bracts in the calla lily are the real flowers, and the little dots on the yellow inflorescence in the middle are the real flowers. | Pixabay
The main role of bracts is to protect the healthy growth of flower buds into flowers. The cascading green leaves around the snow lotus are not petals, but bracts. They look very complex and can be closed when cooling down at night, protecting the snow lotus flowers in the middle from severe cold weather.
The layers of Tianshan snow lotus are not flowers. It grows in harsh cold because it has the protective effect of bracts. | Graph source network
Beautiful bracts are also able to attract pollinators. The lip flowers themselves have no special smell or floral fragrance, and in order to attract pollinators like bees and butterflies, they rely on attractive bright red lips.
Every year from December to March, when the flower grows out of the red lips, the flower looks weird? Finally, it produces an oval-shaped black fruit. So, if you want to see the most obvious red lips, you have to do it before the flowers bloom.
After flowering, it doesn't look like lips, and the red lips will slowly disappear. | Wiki
Grown in some tropical rainforests of Central and South America, the lip flower is not only a symbol of romance on Valentine's Day for local residents, but also a folk medicine with magical effects.
Its bark and leaves are said to treat coughs, skin diseases and breathing difficulties. It also relieves the pain of snake bites. However, these are folk remedies passed down by word of mouth by the local population, and whether they have any effects need to be examined separately. However, it has also been shown to have antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties.
It looks like a mouth, and maybe it can cure diseases. It's a magical plant. | Flickr @slippincott
However, if you want to change a "flower" on Valentine's Day and send a bouquet of lip flowers, it is unlikely now... Because this flower is difficult to see in life.
One reason is that it is more demanding on the environment. The lip flower itself can only grow in a certain climate, a humid and hot rainforest, and also requires a fertile and humus-rich soil. The 3-meter-tall lip flower is in the shrub layer in the tropical rainforest, and there are many upper trees that block the sun.
Therefore, the lip flower is only found in Central and South America, such as in the rainforests of Colombia, Ecuador and Costa Rica. Imagine this: if you want to grow lip flowers at home, you need a humid greenhouse, but also to avoid the strong sunlight, and because it is as tall as 1-3 meters, this greenhouse must be large enough.
Each layer of the rainforest is home to different plants and animals. The lip flowers live in the shrub layer. | Pixabay
But now, perhaps it is difficult to see this unique plant in Central and South America, because the lip flower is on the verge of extinction.
Due to their peculiar appearance, the lip flower is widely used as a Valentine's Day gift, which may have triggered uncontrolled picking. On the other hand, due to the disappearance of the tropical rainforest in Central and South America, the lip flower has lost its original habitat and the upper trees that originally shielded it from sunlight, and its survival has been greatly threatened, and even seeds are now difficult to find.
As a result, there are fewer and fewer opportunities to see the naturally seductive "lips" in nature. This plant needs unique protection to escape extinction.
Hopefully, we can also see such "natural red lips" in nature.
If there is no lover who can celebrate the festival, just look at the flowers
Lip Flower: Remember to double-click Mo Mo Da! （？| Wiki
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