shanty town

This outstanding plant, Tecophilaea cyanocrocus, is from the Andes highlands in Chile. Some gardeners believe that this is one of the bluest flowers. T. cyanocrocus would be surely the bluest in the southern hemisphere. I'd say that some gentians in the Alps could exceed this Chilean blue.

Tecophilaes cyanocrocus seem to be extinct in the wild due to over-collecting and environmental deterioration in the habitats. Commercially available ones are all from gardens, not from the nature. On a slightly positive note, wild T. cyanocrocus, reportedly, was rediscovered somewhere in Chilean Andes.