Palicourea elata, long known as Psychotria elata and nicknamed “hot lips” or “hooker’s lips”, is a rainforest shrub whose bright red bracts look uncannily like a pair of glossy lips. It grows in the tropical forests of Central and South America, from Mexico and Costa Rica to Panama, Colombia and Ecuador, and its pout is the plant’s way of calling in hummingbirds and butterflies.
What is the hot lips plant?
The plant belongs to the Rubiaceae, the coffee family, also known as the madder or bedstraw family. Botanists moved it from the genus Psychotria to Palicourea, and Kew’s Plants of the World Online now accepts the name Palicourea elata, with Psychotria elata listed as a synonym.
Its popular names are colourful. In English it is called hot lips or hooker’s lips; in Spanish-speaking countries it is labios de puta, and it is sometimes called “girlfriend kiss”. Its look has made it a popular Valentine’s Day gift.
Red bracts and tiny flowers
The “lips” are not petals. They are bracts, modified leaves that surround the flower cluster. They look most like a mouth before the flowers open; as the cluster develops, the two red bracts part and small, star-shaped flowers appear between them. In the wild these flowers bloom from December to March.
The flowers have no detectable scent, so the plant relies on colour and shape to attract pollinators. Hummingbirds and butterflies are drawn to the vivid red. After pollination the plant produces small black or dark blue berries, which birds eat and spread through the forest.
Where Palicourea elata grows
Palicourea elata is a shrub of the rainforest understorey. It usually reaches 1 to 3 metres, occasionally 4 metres, and depends on shade from the trees above. Its shape changes with the light and the plants around it. Kew records its native range as stretching from central Mexico to Ecuador, with Jamaica also included, in wet tropical forest.
Rainforest trails in Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador are good places to look for it, ideally between December and March when it flowers; some tropical botanical gardens grow it too. Stay on the trail and photograph the bracts without picking them.
More remarkable plants
Nature’s colour tricks go well beyond hot lips. Our rainbow eucalyptus guide explains the multicoloured bark of Eucalyptus deglupta, and a walk through Kirstenbosch in Cape Town shows how a botanical garden can be the best place to meet unusual plants.
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