Largest inflorescence

The spiky foliage of the puya, or Queen of the Andes (Puya raimondii), a rare giant bromeliad native to the high Andes mountains of Bolivia and Peru, grows approximately 3–4 metres (9 feet 9 inches–13 feet 1 inch) off the ground. When the puya blooms, its flower spike, or panicle, can reach 10–12 metres (32 feet 9 inches–39 feet 4 inches) tall and have a diameter of up to 2.4 metres (8 feet); extra-large specimens can grow as tall as 15 metres (49 feet 2 inches). The inflorescence – the largest among all plants based on physical size – can bear approximately 8,000 small white flowers.

The Queen of the Andes is also the largest bromeliad – a family of plants to which the pineapple also belongs.

Puya raimondii is monocarpic; that means it only flowers once in its lifetime before it dies. It is also the slowest-flowering plant, taking 80–150 years to produce its single bloom.

Larger examples of these enormous inflorescences are so strong that they can support a person climbing up them.