Most will think yareta (Azorella compacta) is a moss, but it’s a very slow-growing perennial that can grow to huge individuals. It grows less than 2 cm per year, so the largest individuals are several thousand years of age!
During flowering there are huge amount of insects drawn to the sticky, sweet resin from the flowers. Even humans will have a pleasant experience as they smell really sweet.
Old individuals might suddenly shed big portions of the growth as seen here. I don’t know if it’s insects, larvae or disease that causes this, but I guess that when you’ve been growing for a couple of thousand years, there might be certain areas of the plant that is simply too hard to maintain, and thus it’s simply dropped – like a dead branch on a tree.
Altitude: 4345 metres.
Native range is Peru to Argentina.
From a distance the wonderful Yaretas seems uniformly green, but not so, as seen here.
-18.0525,-68.943333
Last updated on 8 November 2024
