Photographed in September. Somewhat less than 1 meter in height. Moist highlands south of Colima Volcano, Colima State.
I'm going to be upset if it's Pentas, which I made myself recognize by their five petals (goes with their name), to distinguish them from Ixora, which have four petals (in an X configuration, which has nothing to do with their name). They probably look different in other respects too, and I don't see any Ixora that look anything like this. Are the search results way worse than ever? Why do I have to get Ontario wildflowers when I query mexican plant hairy four petals? It seems impossible to insist that the results have something to do with Mexico.
That second photo is stunning. I love the luminescence in the flowers. What about Crusea hispida? I'm not totally convinced. Stems not hairy enough? Crusea hispida ยท iNaturalist.org Crusea hispida var. grandiflora - fotos I think I might even favour Crusea wrightii var. wrightii, based on just three photos on this page: The World's Best Photos of cananea and mexico - Flickr Hive Mind I like the blue stamens and pistils [edited - I meant to say "stamens and anthers"] in these photos, which match your photo. Crusea calocephala could be a possibility. It's the banner photo on this page: NLE : Family : Rubiaceae We're still in Rubiaceae anyway. And in Mexico.
Flower of Crusea wrightii var. wrightii is right on (pun not intended). Leaves on my images seem to show somewhat more branching than the images of wrightii but perhaps that's a function of position along stem? On SEINet, I see records of wrightii var. wrightii, hispida and longiflora , all within a few km of my locality, but the latter two bear much less resemblance to my photos. So I'm quite content with wrightii for my purposes. Thanks Wendy!
