#puya

Puya coerulea var. coerulea

This is another Puya from Chile, with very silver leaves and inky-blue flowers. As can be seen in the lower photo, the flowers change color to purple as they go by. This plant can grow into a very large clump over time, so it needs plenty of space in the garden. Like other puyas, it has leaves edged with small but sharp teeth, so it should be approached with care!

×Puckia 'Sparkle'

The × at the beginning of this name means that it is not a true genus, but rather a cross between 2 different genera - in this case, Puya and Dyckia. Its parentage is said to include Puya laxa, Dyckia platyphylla, and Dyckia fosteriana. It would be hard to guess how these 3 might combine, but i find the flower color to be hard to square with this listed parentage. How did it get pale yellow petals, when those of P. laxa are blue-green fading to dark purple, while those of both Dyckia species are orange? I guess we will have to chalk it up to the mysteries of mixing genes. Puya and Dyckia are both in the Bromeliad Family and native to South America.

Puya venusta

Ruth Bancroft was delighted when this clump-forming silvery-leaved bromeliad finally flowered in the garden, but sadly it was later killed in a severe cold snap in 1990. It took us a long time to get another one, but we are very happy to have it back! The intense purplish-blue of the flowers, combined with the pinkish-red of the stalks and the silvery leaves - well, it all adds up to a stand-out!

I really should have walked back along the tour route and got some better photos of this one - not only are the flowers a very unusual blue-green with bright orange pollen, but the plant only flowers once then dies.

 Photo by Nicolás Villaseca Merino, iNaturalist.

Originally described as German naturalist Eduard Friedrich Poeppig in 1833 as Pourretia alpestris. Poeppig spent part of the 1820s in South America and returned with over 17,000 dried plant specimens. AKA Pitcairnia alpestris and Puya whytei.

Puya is a Mapuche Indian word meaning "point". The specific epithet means "Alps inhabiting" although it refers to the Andes in this case.

Puya alpestris is native to dry hills and rocky outcrops of the Chilean Andes, and is one of the southernmost-growing bromeliads. The sword-like leaves are over a meter long have hooks on the undersides, and the inflorescence up to 4.5m tall, depending on subspecies. It's still dwarfed by its endangered sister species Puya raimondii, which can be 15m tall.

The flowers are pollinated by hummingbirds and other birds, and possibly by the culpeo fox (Lycalopex culpaeus) which manages to get past the leaves to lick at the abundant nectar.

Puya vasquezii

Puyas are plants in the Bromeliad Family (in fact, the largest bromeliad of all is a species of Puya), featuring rosettes of very sharp-toothed leaves. Most of the species have narrow tubular flowers, as is the case with Puya vasquezii, but this is not true of all of them. P. vasquezii is from western Bolivia, near to La Paz. What I find wonderful about the flower is its subtle coloration. At the end of the flower, the petals emerge from the sepals that clasp them, and they are olive-green fading to dark purple. The sepals add tones of yellow, orange and red. Not bright or flashy, but beautiful nonetheless. This plant has been in flower continuously for over 3 months, though not many flowers are open at any given time.

Blue Flame

Úrsula Romero (2020)