When Ruben Dario Carianil began cultivating the unusual, pointy Inirida flower in the Colombian Amazon ten years ago, his relatives made fun of him for growing "weeds."
Today, the 63-year-old Carianil, of the Curripako tribe, grows tons of the curious blooms on a plot outside Inirida -- the jungle city of 30,000 people from which the flower took its name.
Carianil exports Inirida cuttings to the United States, Europe and Asia, and soon even more foreigners will be introduced to the rare blossom as the emblem of a UN biodiversity conference to be held in Cali from October 21 to November 1.
"I'm very happy," Carianil told AFP of his success, which he sees as helping, not harming, the environment. "For us, Nature, the forest, is life. We Indigenous people respect it and we live in harmony with Nature without damaging it."
Read more at The Citizen's Voice.