The paramo, a beautiful yet relatively unknown ecosystem ⛰️

_{Photo of the Sumapaz moorland, Cundinamarca, Colombia covered in snow, better known as "paramo de Sumapaz", it's the largest paramo in the world!!. Photo taken by Alta Consejeria de Paz de Bogota and Alta Consejeria Distrital TIC. Source image}

The páramo is an intertropical alpine ecosystem with a predominance of scrub-type vegetation (shrubs), which is why it is biogeographically classified as grassland and mountain scrub. They are generally located from altitudes of approximately 2900 meters above sea level up to 5000 meters above sea level.

So as you can read, the paramo is already a little bit different that what comes to mind when someone reffers to a moorland, the sometimes dry wasteland or heather populated plains that exist in the UK and other zones, since paramos not only start in a higher altitude, but also have some other characteristics that makes them endemic. These characteristics all come from two important factors:

Geographical position

Paramos can be found in the following places: principally in the northern region of the Andes mountain range, going from Peru to the West of Venezuela, with Colombia containing 50% percent of them! (Similar ecosystems can be found in the southern mountains of Central America, Ethiopia, New Guinea and East Africa) What do all these places hold i common? Well, they are located near the ecuator in tropical latitudes, meaning that there isn't such a thing like seasons, no summer, no winter, no spring, no autumn. _{Photo taken in the Santurban moorland (Paramo de santurban), located between the departments of Santander and Norte de Santander, Colombia. Photo property of Portafolio.co. Source image Photo taken in the National Park of El Cocuy, Boyaca, Colombia. The park is home to one of the few remaining glaciars in Colombia. Photo taken by El Cocuy Caminantes Hostal, for eltiempo.com. Source image}

Having the same climate all year round allows life to evolve in ways that can't be found in neither the northernmost region or the southernmost region of the planet, making most of the species you found in paramos endemic!! Wait what are those species?

Flora and Fauna!!

Now comes my favorite part!! And also this is what makes paramos so beautiful in first place, let me introduce to you the plant that is populating the header image of this post: the Espeletia genre, or how i like to call them, frailejones. These plants have a thick, usually single trunk with succulent, very hairy leaves that are arranged in a tight whorl to form a rosette at the top of the stem. The dead leaves along it, instead of falling, remain protecting it , These adaptions are due to the cold (temperature normally being in an aproximate of between 5 and 2 degrees Celsius) and UV exposed climate that is the high mountains. _{E. pycnophylla located in the ecologic reserve of El Angel, Ecuador. Photo taken by Thomas van Hengstum (originally from nl.wikipedia.org, used under CC BY-SA 3.0. Source image.}

Another plant that i want to talk about is the puya genre, puya is a genus of the botanic family Bromeliaceae (the same one the pineapple is from!!), it's leaves are alternate and spiral in arrangement, sitting at the bottom part of the plant, having an erect inflorescence coming out of it, where the flowers develop, these flowers take 150 years to flourish, making puya the slowest growing plant in the world!!. In the paramos of Peru, "the queen of the Andes" resides, i'm reffering to the puya raimondii, the biggest of it's kind, reaching up to 12 meters in height, this due to this species having the biggest inflorescence in the world! Meanwhile in Colombia, around Cundinamarca, Boyaca, Santander and Norte de Santander departments, you can find puya goudotiana, who is small compared to raimondii, only reaching up to 5 meters in height (wich it's still kinda big).

_{Photos of puya raimondii in the ecological reserve of Titankayocc, Ayacucho, Peru. Photo taken from the Club Departamental Ayacucho. Source image.}

These plants and much others make paramos look beautiful, along with the thick fog that normally generates around the ecosystem, it almost feels like you are in a floating island where no human has been. Being around in these places is a very relaxing, breath taking and awesome experience! Even though i said that it looks like no human has been there, it's know that human activity and climate change have been a very dangeroues treat to these endemic lands, and preserving them is very important since in paramos is where most of the water sources of the region generate (this thing is more evident in super paramos, a subtype of paramo that is located near perma-snow glaciers in the some mountain tops!).

_{A superparamo near glaciars in the National Park of El Cocuy, Boyaca, Colombia. Photo taken by Jaime Garcia for eltiempo.com. Source image}

And as a finishing note, i'd like to briefly mention some of the animals that you can find there, mainly composed of mammals (because i don't think a cold blooded animal can last a lot in the freezing temperatures), these species are, but not limited to: Jaguars; cougars; deers; foxes; ducks; the spectacle bear (the only bear in all of South America); frogs; the andean tapir; the tepezcuintle and the biggest flying bird in the entire planet, the andean condor!! Creating the very intricate and delicate relationship between species that could easily fall apart if disturbed.

_{An andean condor sitting in a frailejon. Photo taken in the Santa Isabel moorland (paramo de Santa Isabel), Tolima, Colombia. Photo by Colprensa. Source image}