Puya raimondii, the Queen of the Andes, is the world’s largest bromeliad. It spends between 60 and 100 years growing a vast rosette of spiny leaves before producing a flower spike up to six metres long, bearing more than 100,000 flowers and millions of seeds. After this single performance, the plant dies, leaving its enormous stalk standing for years. A lifetime of preparation followed by a rather excessive finale.
Puya raimondii
