Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter

from the March 31, 2007 Newsletter issued from Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, QUERÉTARO, MÉXICO
CRIMSON IXORA
At a bus station in the Gulf lowlands, maybe in Ciudad Victoria, one hedge- producing plant drew attention by producing handsome clusters of bright red flowers, and it was a species I knew, for it also is much planted in the Yucatan. It was the Crimson Ixora, IXORA COCCINEA, of the opposite-leaved, inferior-ovaried Coffee Family, the Rubiaceae. You can see the pretty flowers below:

Crimson Ixora, IXORA COCCINEA

Though much planted in the tropics worldwide, this plant is from India and China. It's been grown in gardens for so long that several varieties have been produced, including a yellow-flowered one and one with much larger, fuller flowers.