Description
The area around Patarcocha, in the Chacas district (Ancash region), within the famous Huascarán National Park, is world-renowned for having the densest populations of Puya raimondii. This rare plant belongs to the bromeliad family (Bromeliaceae) and is native to the high Andes of Peru and Bolivia; it is also known as the Queen of the Andes. It grows at extreme altitudes of between 3,500 and 4,500 metres in barren, sunny mountain steppes. The plant often lives for over 80 to 100 years, flowers only once in its lifetime with a gigantic inflorescence up to 10 metres high, and then dies. – Peru – 1977
