This time of year, when everything in the forest seems to be different shades of green, it’s likely you’ll come up on an area dotted with beautiful spots of pale purple. And if you do, you’ve probably run across a Spurred Butterfly Pea vine in bloom.

If you take a close look, the Spurred Butterfly Pea bloom is easy to identify by its color and its unusual “upside-down” flower. The reason it’s called upside-down or inverted is that, in many similar flowers – think bean and pea flowers – the enlarged petal called the “standard” or “banner” is positioned above nectar-bearing flower parts. In the Spurred Butterfly Pea, the banner is to the side and below the flower structure that contains nectar.