Um, is it just me or is there something totally sexual about this flower? You’re looking at the stigma of what is technically a Passiflora Caerulea, or, in layman’s terms, a blue passion flower. The yellowish things directly behind are the stamens.
The blue passion flower is an extremely fast growing, hardy plant that produces ornate multi-coloured flowers with a tropical minty scent. It grows throughout Central and South America and produces egg shaped orange fruits with deep red, edible pulp. This plant loves heat and humidity and needs something tall to climb and, apparently, butterflies love it. Perhaps with this close up, you can see why!
I shot this photo handheld, in the shade, using my 105 macro lens at 400 ISO. The aperture was at f/4.5 with a shutter speed of 1/320 sec and no flash.
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“…loves heat and humidity and needs something tall to climb…” sounds just about right.
Did you eat any of its fruit??
(Welcome back!)