FRAILEJONES

The páramos of the northern South American Andes are characterized by extensive grasslands and the dominance of strange plants with stemmed rosettes, commonly known as frailejones. These plants are widely distributed and abundant in the high Andean forest and páramos of Colombia, Venezuela and, to a lesser extent, Ecuador, and the preservation of the páramo ecosystem depends largely on them. Almost every páramo harbors endemic species of frailejones, with only a few species occurring in multiple páramo localities. 

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