Queen of the Andes

These towering stalks are flowers of the queen of the Andes, the world's largest bromeliad (a family of flowering plants that includes the pineapple). Some specimens can grow up to 50ft (15m) tall. This extraordinary plant has adapted to grow only in the tough conditions found high in the Bolivian and Peruvian Andes mountains. The queen of the Andes sends up her flowering stalk just once, after up to a century of painstaking growth. A single plant will bloom for about three months, producing between 8,000 and 20,000 flowers, then die.
© Cyril Ruoso/Minden Pictures