What plant is the lips flower? The latest analysis is here
The lips flower is named for its shape, which closely resembles sexy, alluring lips; it is also known as Ilata nine-section and Hooker's lip flower, among other names. It is a shrub or small tree plant in the genus Psychotria of the family Rubiaceae. This plant is bright red in color and has a peculiar shape, making people marvel at nature's uncanny workmanship. It grows in the tropical rainforests of some countries in Central America and South America.
The lips flower has opposite leaves, with stipules inside the petioles, often fused, with entire apices, and persistent. The flowers are small, bisexual, and white in color. They form terminal, corymb-like cymes, without an involucre, and with bracts. The calyx tube is short, the calyx limb is 4-6-lobed, and the calyx lobes fall off. The corolla is funnel-shaped, the corolla tube is straight, the throat is hairless, and the corolla has 5 lobes arranged in valvate aestivation. The stamens are equal in number to the corolla lobes, inserted at the throat or mouth of the corolla, with short filaments, and the anthers are dorsifixed near the base.
The lips flower has a 2-locular ovary, and the style is hairless and upright at the base. The drupe is small, sometimes twinned, smooth or with longitudinal ridges. There are 2 seeds, of the same shape as the small pyrenes, convex on the back, with longitudinal ridges, a thin seed coat, fleshy endosperm, a small basal embryo, flat cotyledons, and a cylindrical radicle, inferior. The red part shaped like lips is not a true petal, but the bract of the flower. The flowering period is from December to March.
The lips flower grows in the tropical rainforests of some countries in Central America and South America, such as Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, and others. This plant is bright red in color and has a peculiar shape, and looks as if it has been technically processed; however, it can be said with certainty that its alluring lips are natural, not technically processed.
The lips flower evolved this shape in order to attract pollinating insects such as hummingbirds and butterflies. Because of its brilliant color, people vividly call it Hooker's lips. It usually grows in broad-leaved forests, mountain forests, and tropical forest thickets at altitudes of 350-1300 m. However, due to uncontrolled deforestation in these countries, this plant is on the verge of extinction.