Friday, November 26, 2010

Exotic Plant's Once-a-Century Bloom in Pictures

"Extreme" Bloom



A man surveys a flowering Queen of the Andes plant—which blooms only once in its 80- to 100-year lifetime—near Thumi, Bolivia, (see map) in a picture taken last week.
The exotic plant blooms for a few weeks before it dies. Even before it blooms, though, the Queen of the Andes has a regal presence, towering up to 40 feet (12 meters) in its  Peru and Bolivia.

Flower Feast


Some field studies suggest that Queen of the Andes plants get additional nutrients from the droppings of birds, which feast on the plant's rare flowers, as seen in a picture taken November 10. Hungry birds sometimes get stuck in the plant's prickly foliage, which is essentially an assemblage of inward-curving "claws."

"If you stick your hand into one of these things, it can get ripped to shreds if you pull it out without great care," Lambe said. Some local people loathe the plant, because they've heard reports of sheep or other livestock becoming similarly ensnared, he added 


Solitary Queen


Queen of the Andes plants, like the ones seen above near Thumi, Bolivia, are typically found in small, isolated pockets of a few hundred individuals.
Such spotty distribution prevents the plants from mixing genes, making them more vulnerable to the arrival of diseases, parasites, and predators associated with climate change, Lambe noted .

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