Showy cappel

Palicourea guianensis is a Neotropical understory shrub or small tree in the coffee family Rubiaceae, distributed widely through lowland and lower montane rainforests of northern South America from the Guianas and Venezuela south through the Amazon basin to Bolivia and southeastern Brazil. The plant typically grows 1 to 5 meters tall on slender stems, with opposite simple elliptic to oblong-lanceolate leaves bearing interpetiolar stipules characteristic of the family. The inflorescence is a terminal panicle bearing showy yellow-orange to red-orange tubular flowers, often borne on contrastingly colored red or orange peduncles and pedicels — a syndrome highly attractive to hummingbird pollinators that is characteristic of the genus. The fruit is a small drupe ripening from green through orange to dark blue or purple-black, dispersed by birds. The genus Palicourea contains nearly 700 species and remains poorly studied taxonomically.