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| 28th March 2006 | 2nd July 2015 | 12th July 2018 | ||
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Another unexpectedly prickly species that occasionally elicits strong language.
This is a picture of its last gasp, I'm afraid. I have been growing it since 1988, and last year
I let a frost get to it, and it has died (and I am kicking myself). Fortunately others weren't as careless as me and in 2015 I was able to obtain a division from another at Tregrehan Plant Fair. San Maros growers say: "Puya laxa (Hay Stack Puya) - A tough and attractive evergreen terrestrial bromeliad that forms 12 to 18 inch tall clumps that spread 3 to 4 feet or more bearing wispy stems that hold 1 foot wide open rosettes of twisting spiny margined leaves densely clothed in fine silver hairs and margined with tiny recurved teeth. The 3-foot-tall red stemmed inflorescence, holds loosely spaced thin tubular flowers that have a red-violet exterior and are dark blackish purple on the interior - flowers are unusual but not outstanding showy. Though Warner Rauh in Bromelien the landmark 1970 treaty on Bromeliads listed this Lyman Smith described species as coming from Argentina, later writings about it note the plant Lyman described in 1958 actually came from near Pulquina in Santa Cruz, Bolivia (Phytologia 6, 1958). The name for the genus come from the Chilean name used for the species Puya chilensis and the specific epithet is from the Latin word 'laxus' meaning "loose", "slack" or "relaxed" in reference to the open rosettes of reflexed leaves. " |
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