Queen of the Andes

The world's largest bromeliad

The Queen of the Andes (Puya raimondii), also called titanka, is the largest bromeliad species alive. For most of its very long life it appears as a dense, ball-shaped rosette of stiff, leathery leaves, long and pointed, edged with hooked spines. Then, just once, it produces a gigantic inflorescence that rises like a colossal candelabra up to about 15 metres tall, covered in thousands of flowers and able to produce millions of seeds.

Habitat and range

It is endemic to the high Andes of Peru and Bolivia, where it grows in the puna, the cold high-altitude grassland, generally above 3,500–3,800 metres, on sunny, well-drained slopes. It is adapted to extreme cold, wind and intense sunlight.

Life cycle

It is a monocarpic plant: it grows extremely slowly for many decades — even a century — storing energy, flowers just once in a spectacular burst, and then dies, leaving survival to the huge quantity of seeds it produces. Its mass flowering is a rare and memorable event for the people of the Andes.

Did you know?

Its large flowers attract many pollinators, including birds and insects. Unfortunately its spiny structure can trap small birds, which sometimes become caught among the leaves.

Conservation

The IUCN lists it as Endangered. Populations are declining because of its restricted range, fires, grazing, collection and climate change, which threaten an already very slow and vulnerable reproductive cycle.