Plant Portraits 11. South American Treasures

  (Note images in this series were generated with the assistance of modern AI tools. No actual human individuals are portrayed here. See the first installment of the series for further explanation)

  South America provides a diverse landscape of grasslands, deserts, mountains, and rain forests. Each provides sustenance and, in season, spectacular wildflower displays. 

 

The vast grasslands of Argentina and neighboring countries are known as the Pampas. Several palms make their home here, including the Syagrus romanzoffianum palms shown here. Philodendron selloum, a ubiquitous landscape plant in warm climates everywhere, is native to thickets and forest edges bordering on the Pampas. Giant, flightless Rhea birds make their home here.feeding on foliage, fruits, insects, and other small animals.

 

 

During the rainy season, the Pampas turns into a colorful mosaic of wildflowers, including the blue Commelina erecta, red Glandularia peruviana, and yellow Chrysocephalum apiculatum pictured here. The giant Pampas grass, Cortaderia sellowana, also makes its home here. 

In the Andes, which run the length of South America, wildflowers also abound, including the red and purple Fuchsia magellanica, scarlet Anagallis arvensis, and the orange-yellow  Chuquiraga jussieui, pictured here. In a remarkable example of convergent evolution, Puya raimondii is a giant bromeliad (relative of the pineapple) that blooms just once after many decades, similar to the North American Century Plants (Agave spp) which are in an unrelated family.

 

 

In the cloud forests of the Andes, Anthurium andreanum evolved bright red-colored spathes, a rarity in the Aroid family, to attract hummingbirds, who feed on nectar produced by the tiny flowers on the spadix, and transfer pollen from one plant to another. Passiflora edulis, on the other hand, is blue-colored to attract large bees, such as carpenter bees, who feed on the nectar and transport pollen.

Passiflora tripartita, one of some 550 species found in tropical America, has specialized flowers with long nectar tubes, that hang upside-down, classic adaptations for pollination by hovering hummingbirds.

 

Fuchsia magellanica, one of over 100 species native to tropical America, has red and purple pendant flowers adapted for hummingbird pollination, similar to many species of Passiflora. This is anther example of convergent evolution. 

 The Inca culture of the Andes highlands was sustained by farming varieties of native tomatoes, potatoes and quinoa. Quinine, an important drug for fighting malaria, was derived from another Andean native plant, Cinchona officianalis.