Loài hoa một thế kỷ mới nở một lần

Queen of the Andes plant blooms once in a century.

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.

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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 mountain habitats of Peru and Bolivia.

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"If you stick your hand into one of these things, it can get ripped to shreds if you pull it out without great care,"

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Some local people loathe the plant, because they've heard reports of sheep or other livestock becoming similarly ensnared

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Queen of the Andes plants are found only in Peru and Bolivia at altitudes between 9,800 and 15,750 feet (3,000 and 4,800 meters).

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"Conditions there are so barren that [the plant] needs time to build up the resources with which it produces the flowering and reproduces,"

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"That's why it's so slow and takes 50 or 100 years."

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A single plant can produce up to ten million seeds.