Puya raimondii


Puya raimondii, also known as queen of the Andes, titanka or puya de Raimondi, is the largest species of bromeliad, reaching up to in height. It is native to the high Andes of Bolivia and Peru.

Taxonomy

The first scientific description of this species was made in 1830 by the French scientist Alcide d'Orbigny after he encountered it in the region of Vacas, Cochabamba, in Bolivia at an altitude of. However, as the plants he saw were immature and not yet flowering, he could not classify them taxonomically.
The species name of raimondii commemorates the 19th-century Italian scientist Antonio Raimondi, who immigrated to Peru and made extensive botanical expeditions there. He encountered this species in the region of Chavín de Huantar and published it as new to science under the name Pourretia gigantea in his 1874 book El Perú In 1928, the name was changed to Puya raimondii by the German botanist Hermann Harms, as the combination Puya gigantea was already used for a Chilean species.

Description

The queen of the Andes is the largest species of bromeliad. Its trunk can be tall, with a rosette of about two hundred linear leaves, these up to long and about in width, the leaf spines reaching long. The inflorescence can measure between tall. The whole plant may reach as much as tall. A single plant can produce between 8,000 and 20,000 flowers in a 3-month period.
Its reproductive cycle lasts approximately 80 years, though one individual planted near sea level at the University of California Botanical Garden, bloomed in August 1986 after only 28 years.

Distribution and habitat

P. raimondii is native to the Andes of Bolivia and Peru, between of elevation on shrubby and rocky slopes. This species seem to be very specialist on site conditions as it prefers to grow in small areas even if the surrounding terrain may seem equally suitable, resulting in a patchy distribution of P. raimondii stands. Moreover, in spite of being a high altitude plant, it has thrived at near sea level in temperate climate.

Conservation status

P. raimondii is considered an endangered species by the IUCN. The main threats to its survival are: human caused fires, climate change and a declining genetic diversity.