Blakea Scarlatina

(After Heade) 2005
Oil on panel
Dimensions: 13.75" x 10.75"

Frank Almeda at California Academy of Sciences is a botanist whose expertise is the tropical Melastomataceae. This is a huge family of flowering plants with 150 genera and over 3000 species. He discovered this spectacular epiphytic climbing shrub in Costa Rica in 1990.