Purple Bellflower Among the Stones of the Sanctuary

It was Michel Salas who found it first: two flowers of an almost impossible violet, pushing their way up through the stones and sandy earth inside the sanctuary of the Fundación Loros. It was Ruellia simplex, the purple bellflower, its wide and delicate petals contrasting with the reddish stems and the long, dark leaves that hold them up. The midday light fell directly upon them, making the color seem even more intense against the pale ground. What caught the eye was not only the beauty of the plant, but its setting — growing alone, with no apparent company, on a arid, gravel-strewn patch of earth, as though it had simply decided to take up residence there on its own terms. Michel raised the camera and recorded it for the field log. Genus Ruellia, family Acanthaceae. A small note of color on the living map of the sanctuary.