17/08/2026
Hola explorers! This August and September I’ll be presenting a special series of talks in Los Angeles exploring the remarkable flora of the Northern and Central Andes 🏔️
Having lived and worked in South America for the past decade, I have spent much of that time travelling through and researching some of the continent’s most extraordinary and remote habitats which continue to fascinate and inspire me 🌵
Stretching along the western edge of South America, the Andes form the world’s longest continental mountain chain and support an incredible diversity of landscapes—from the misty páramos of Venezuela and Colombia to Bolivia’s high Altiplano and Yungas cloud forests, to the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, dry mountain valleys of northern Argentina and the chilled slopes of Patagonia - cacti and succulents can be found along its entire range 🗺️
The presentation will journey through these dramatically contrasting environments and highlight their distinctive succulents and other exotic plants. Featured examples include the giant frailejones (Espeletia), ancient cushion-forming llaretas (Azorella compacta), Melocactus, Browningia, Oreocereus, Blossfeldia, Tephrocactus, bromeliads, agaves, and many other unusual Andean species 🔍
Through original habitat photography and first-hand observations, the presentation explores how elevation, geology, rainfall, temperature, and rain-shadow effects have shaped one of the most diverse and fascinating mountain floras on Earth 🏔️🏜️
