The annatto flowers on new wood; the panicles are terminal (at the tips of branches that the tree grew earlier in the same year). In Florida, these panicles of flowers appear in late summer and autumn. The flowers are followed by softly-bristled reddish brown capsules. The capsules contain numerous angular seeds. Each seed is enveloped in a waxy red aril; this coating was the object of high demand among Natives. It contains the brilliant red dye, annatto that was used as body paint. The dye was also used to tint the lips giving the plant an alternate name, the 'lipstick tree'.

The generic name, Bixa, is apparently derived from bija, the name of the tree among the Taino of the Caribbean. The species epithet, orellana, was to honor its European discoverer, Don Francisco de Orellana, a conquistador.

Don Francisco de Orellana, Gonzalo Pizarro (Francisco's brother) and company left Quito, Ecuador early in 1541 in search of the fabled city of El Dorado, or in the very least, some spices that would bring a healthy profit back in Spain. The native guides led the conquistadores over the spine of the Andes. It was cold, the soldiers got sick, and many died; the native guides disappeared whenever possible.

On the east side of the Andes, the men found themselves in a vast, thick, and very wet rainforest. They ate their way through the company's cattle and pigs. On the verge of starvation, they ate their horses and dogs. At the edge of a river, (present day Rio Napo) the company split and Orellana's group built a boat with every intention of returning with help for Pizarro's group.

A year after leaving Quito, Orellana and crew were at the confluence where their river joined a huge river. By August of 1542, the crew was at the Atlantic Ocean. Orellana promptly named the enormous river, Rio de Orellana.

The name may have stuck except for the tales told by the crew. The Spanish had attacked and burned villages along the way. Natives that didn't flee were summarily saved from their sins by execution. The conquistadores, though, reported that they were attacked by the fiercest women! A whole tribe of them! These must have been the women warriors the ancient Greeks wrote about!

Map makers back in Spain really liked the idea of women warriors. Who gives a damn about Orellana? And besides, he abandoned poor Pizarro's group. The river was labeled on every map for those legendary women, the Amazons.

(Compiled from: Hortus Third, Staff L.H. Bailey Hortorium, NY State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Macmillan, NY, 1976; "Bixa orellana L.", Heather Newman, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden Resource Center and Virtual Herbarium, Fairchild Garden, Miami, 2000; and "Francisco de Orellana", Ray Howgego, Discoverer's Web, no date.)