Electronic Precinct - July 1999

Flowering gem makes a rare appearance at Ness Gardens

Visitors to the University's Botanic Gardens at Ness recently had the opportunity to see a rare South American plant in flower. The plant, Puya alpestris, produced a stunning two-metre high spike of electric blue flowers. The branches of the flower spike have flowerless tips for pollinating humming birds to land on. The species, which grows high in the Andes Mountains, forms rosettes of very spiny grey-green leaves which grow for many years, storing up food, and eventually producing the beautiful flowering spikes of a very unusual dark blue.