Kingdom Plantae Family Bromeliaceae Scientific name Puya raimondii Rank Species | Order Poales Genus Puya Higher classification Puya | |
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Similar Puya, Bromeliads, Puya berteroniana, Jarava ichu, Puya chilensis | ||
Puya raimondii, also known as queen of the Andes (English), titanka (Quechua) or puya de Raimondi (Spanish), is the largest species of bromeliad. It is native to Bolivia and Peru and is restricted to the high Andes at an elevation of 3000 – 4800 m.
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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 3960 m (12,992 ft). However, as the plants he saw were immature and not yet flowering, he could not classify them taxonomically.
The specific name of raimondii commemorates the 19th-century Italian scientist Antonio Raimondi, who immigrated to Peru and made extensive botanical expeditions there. He discovered this species later in the region of Chavín de Huantar and published it as Pourretia gigantea in his 1874 book El Perú. In 1928, the name was changed to Puya raimondii by the German botanist Hermann Harms.
Description
It is not only the largest of the Puya species, but also the largest species of bromeliad. It can reach 3 m tall in vegetative growth, with around a hundred sword-like leaves up to five feet (1.5 meters) in length topping a trunk up to four feet (1.2 meters) thick. The trunk, peduncle and inflorescence together can reach as much as fifty feet (15 meters) in total height. It can produce an inflorescence (technically a spiciform panicle) 16 to 23 feet (5 to 7 meters) in length bearing between 8,000 and 20,000 flowers, and a total of six million seeds from each plant.
Its reproductive cycle is approximately 40 years, though one individual planted near sea level at the University of California Botanical Garden, USA, in 1958 grew to 7.6 m (24 ft 11 in) and bloomed in August 1986 after only 28 years.
Like most bromeliads, it is a monocarp and dies soon after flowering and fruiting. It is considered to be an endangered species. Seeds were collected of P. raimondii in 1999 and 2000 of the rodales of Huashta Cruz (district Pueblo Libre, Ancash region, Peru), near the city of Caraz. It is also known to grow in the Masma Chicche District of Jauja Province.
Distribution and Habitat
45 km west from Caraz (Ancash - Peru) at 4200m above sea level, at Huashta Cruz, on the Cordillera Negra, there is a rodal (single-species stand) of puyas, with a 145 km view of the Cordillera Blanca. The hilly area is known as Huinchus, and the giant hummingbird (Patagona gigas) is often spotted here. Perhaps the very largest plants are to be found near the abandoned village of Manallasac, Huamanga Province, Peru, where the spike per se can be seen to be twenty feet (6.1 meters) long and 4.5 feet (1.37 meters) wide atop a peduncle of an additional five feet (1.5 meters) long. Elsewhere spikes up to 23 feet (7 meters) long and even 29 feet (9 meters) with a width of five feet (1.5 meters) have been photographed.
These plants are mainly located in the three important places of Ancash: the gully of Ingenio in Catac, the punas of Cajamarquilla and the gully of Qishqi, also in Catac. A large concentration of the plants outside of Lampa near Puno is being promoted as the Bosque Puya Raimondi.
In Bolivia - apart from Vacas Municipality, where these plants are spread throughout a small area of about 1 km2 - the only other place to find Puya raimondii is Comanche mountain in Caquiaviri Canton, Caquiaviri Municipality, Pacajes Province, La Paz Department.