Puya loca dark-purple flowers with yellow anthers among rust-brown hairy bracts

Puya loca

A perennial terrestrial bromeliad endemic to Colombia, it grows in the páramos of the Eastern Andes near Bogotá. It forms dense groups of leaf rosettes, with stiff, curved leaves bearing spines along their margins. An upright, unbranched flower spike rises above the rosette. The broad bracts and outer surfaces of the sepals have a dense covering of rust-colored woolly hairs. Its deep-purple flowers hang outward from the spike. Natural populations grow on well-drained rocky slopes and in rock crevices exposed to sun and wind. It is endangered in the wild. Photographed in the eastern Andes mountain range of Colombia.

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Two dark-purple Puya loca flowers with yellow anthers among rust-brown hairy bracts

Puya loca dark-purple flowers with yellow anthers emerging among rust-brown hairy bracts

Puya loca dense flower spike with dark-purple flowers and rust-brown hairy bracts

Dark purple Puya loca flowers with yellow anthers

Puya loca dark-purple flower with yellow anthers

Puya loca flower spike with dark-purple flowers, yellow anthers, and rust-brown hairy bracts