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 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. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES ARRANGED IN SEQUENCES