Photo Credit: Flickr User, JG in SF

Wednesday June 19th, 2013 was an exciting day for plant lovers. Puya Berteroniana, an exotic plant that belongs to the Bromeliad family (a relative of the pineapple), bloomed for the first time in the 11 years at the Ventor Botanic Garden in the United Kingdom. It was an unexpected surprise, especially since it can take up to 100 years for the plant to bloom!

But fortunately for visitors to the Ventor Botanic Gardens, they didn’t have to wait long to see the unusual, yet stunning clusters of turquoise-blue flowers with contrasting orange stamens!

The sight of the flowers is nothing but spectacular and breathtaking, as turquoise is an extremely rare color in the plant world, and it’s even rarer to be combined with orange. The unusual colour attract birds to the plant to help pollinate it.

But as we all know, beauty unfortunately fades. Regrettably, the flowers stay in bloom for about 2 weeks before the plant dies shortly after. Puya Berteroniana is a monocarpic plant, which means it flowers just once and then dies.

The plant can reach 6-10 feet tall. Puya Berteroniana is native to the dry, arid climate of South America and requires extremely arid conditions to bloom. Horticulturists believe the plant flowered that particular day because it was the hottest day of the year at 28C (82F). The leaves are covered in a waxy substance to protect them from the heat.

Other Weird & Unusual Flowers:

• Jade Vine  (funflowerfacts.com)
• Hooker’s Lips Plant  (funflowerfacts.com)
• The World’s Shiniest Plant, the Pollia Condensata (funflowerfacts.com)