Hot Lips

Psychotria sp.

Description:

I saw varieties of this flower in several places in Costa Rica, always in a wild place.It had this bright turquoise berries in the center which made the plant visable from quite a distance. These were seen in Tortuguero.

Notes:

It has a number of applications in traditional medicine. It is used as a painkiller, and can also be used to treat headaches, sprains, rheumatism, respiratory tract infections, muscular pains and bruises, whooping cough, and earaches. It also contains dimethyltryptamine, though as suggested by the use native peoples make of it probably not in quantities to render it strongly psychedelic. p.s. Andres has a gorgeous photo here with many bright blue fruit. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/792...

Species ID Suggestions

11 Comments

pamsai 10 years ago

thanks Ursula...

UrsulaGelchsheimer 10 years ago

there is a tiny bit of the stem to see, so I would say P. poeppigiana - you should always take pictures of the leaves too, it helps a lot with ID of tropical plants

pamsai 10 years ago

thanks Ursula. So which one do you think this is?

UrsulaGelchsheimer 10 years ago

With hairs = P. poeppigiana
without = P. elata

pamsai 10 years ago

thought it better to be on the safe side, and i feel comfortable following your lead, so to say. Thanks for everything bayucca.

bayucca 10 years ago

My comment had not the intention that you change your ID, I was just not sure which one it is and unfortunately the web is not very reliable with a trustable ID. With Psychotria sp. your are anyway and definitely on the safe side...