Anyone Recognize this Plant??

16 May '07 5:58 pm

Hi, Dixie;

Thanks for the info. about how chokos grow! Nope, I guess it's not one of them, either, but thanks for the suggestion! By the way, chokos sound like zucchini in the way they out-produce themselves!

Cheers!

gordonf

21 May '07 6:55 pm

I've checked this post more than once and have stared long and hard at the photo. Sorry, Gordon, but I don't have any idea what that plant might be. I think Dixie has the right idea. It looks vaguely like a vegetable such as a cucumber or squash, but it's been a while since I've grown any produce. Please let us know if the plant produces anything that gives it away.

22 May '07 6:42 pm

Hi, Mark and everyone else who has helped with this mystery plant.

I knew I had seen the plant somewhere before but couldn't remember where! Well, today I selected a gardening book from my collection to take to work with me (it's a really soft job: I sign in and out construction workers to the jobsite and read and do crossword puzzles the rest of the time for 8 hours Very Happy

). Well, when I opened the book at work, there it was on the first page I opened to!

It is a Saruma henryii; new to North America from China. The name is an anagram of "Asarum" the native wild ginger, to which it is related, and it makes a good ground cover in shady places. No wonder it became so sunburned when I placed it in full sun! Here's a bit of what the book says about it:

"It hails from the mountain woodlands of China. Woolly shoots emerge in spring, sporting bulging buds and attractive, heart-shaped leaves. The flowers open before the leaves begin to expand, and flowering continues for more than a month as the stems branch. Unlike the gingers - which have mottled, earth-tone flowers - Saruma's blossoms are a soft primrose-yellow. Saruma's felted leaves expand to 3 to 4 inches and remain attractive all season. Mature plants form a dense, rounded mound to 2 and a half feet tall."

So, now the mystery has been solved! Soon I'll have another one for you all as my mystery plants from last year are growing like weeds (which they may well be!) so I should be able to get a good picture of them to post.

Here's a picture of Saruma taken from the book, Perennials for Today's Gardens.

Thanks again, everyone!

-gordonf

23 May '07 7:23 am

And thanks for sharing the sleuthing with us - always fun!

It seems a highly desirable plant, even though I can't remotely see any connection with gingers - in fact it couldn't be more different! Botany never ceases to amaze me... NOW: what was that about seed...

23 May '07 1:55 pm

Hi, Jack-

The ginger that the Saruma is related to is not the REAL ginger, but the North American and European wild "ginger", which really isn't a ginger at all! Their leaves are very similar except that the Saruma has fuzzy leaves while the other ones have shiny and sometimes variegated leaves. The book also said that the flowers were the same shape but just different colours, but I can't see that. My wild "gingers" are in bloom now, too, and their flowers are, to MY eyes, more like cut-off snapdragon flowers! The Saruma's flowers are quite wide open and flat.

It's already dry enough out (after all that rain) that I have all the sprinklers going! Can't win around here!! Very Happy

Cheers!

gordonf

23 May '07 10:11 pm

dixi if you mix somew cloves with your choko you can make apple pie .the mystery is not a choko and i wouldnot know what it was best of luck finding out Razz

1 Jun '07 4:45 pm

Well, folks, here at last are 2 pictures of the plant that I asked about some time ago. The leaves will eventually grow to at least 10 inches long and are thick and rubbery to the touch. So far it hasn't flowered. None of the local nurserymen recognize it, and it doesn't seem to be a local weed. We think that it was part of a bunch of seeds that I bought from overseas a few years ago but which did not germinate. I reused the soil for other plants and last year, up came these things! Of course, I have long ago thrown out the seed packages for those seeds that didn't grow, so now I have no idea what I planted!! Help!!

-gordonf

2 Jun '07 7:14 am

I have my doubts but I wonder if its a cranesbill geranium. You know, not a succulent pelargonium but a true geranioum. I think there is another name for this but it won't come. They can have wonderful folliage and serated leaves, sometimes with more lobes than yours has. If that's what it is I think they do better with some (but not total) shade.

2 Jun '07 9:55 am

Nope, it's definitely not a cranesbill geranium, but thanks for the idea! The leaves are much too rubbery for that. At first I thought it might be some type of dock, or even a weird rhubarb, but it's not either of those. It really has me wondering!

Cheers!

gordonf

3 Jun '07 8:44 am

Those were my guesses when I first looked at the pics at work. Now I see you've eliminated rhubarb. Try gunnera - there are many species; the one that grows wild for me looks like a pumpkin leaf. I'll post a pic sometime, just so that you can see they're not all spikey six footers! The way the leaves seem to grow around a short stem makes me feel you should rethink rhubarb though.

Anyone Recognize this Plant??

Not a Choko, either, eh?

Not a clue.

Mystery Solved!

Well done Gordon!

Gingers and Gingers, etc.

Here's a new "Mystery Plant"!

Geranium

Rhubarb? Gunnera?