Scarlet bouvardia

Bouvardia ternifolia, scarlet bouvardia or trompetilla, is an evergreen shrub in the Rubiaceae family widespread across much of Mexico and extending southward into Honduras and northward into Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, where it grows on rocky slopes, in oak and pine-oak woodland, and along stream margins. Plants reach about 1.2 metres in height with slender, four-angled, finely pubescent stems. The leaves are arranged in whorls of three to four (reflected in the specific epithet meaning three-leaved), narrowly ovate to lance-shaped, dark green, and entire-margined. From summer through autumn the plant produces showy terminal cymes of brilliant scarlet to red-orange tubular flowers; each corolla is salverform with a slender tube up to 10 centimetres long flaring into four spreading lobes, an adaptation for pollination by hummingbirds. Fruits are small two-lobed capsules. The species is widely grown as an ornamental for its long flowering season and hummingbird-attracting blooms.