Description
(syn. Podophyllum chengii)
A tuberous, forest perennial from Tibet and China. This has a stem which can attain 60 cm although they are more like 20 cm here.
This stem carries 1 or 2 lobed (5-8 lobes), cut and lacerated leaves which are edged with fine teeth. These are highly ornamental and many are splashed, blotched or zoned with deep purple markings, in their juvenile state – though the foliage is not well marked when the plants are mature and flowering, as a rule. The coloured foliage is thus best when the plants are just less than flowering sized. In some forms this colouration can be spectacular.
The flowers appear in May and are deep red-purple. They are held in clusters of up to 15, on a short bristly stem either level with, or just below, the leaves. Each flower is some 3 cm long and is followed by a 4 cm fruit.
Enjoys a spot sheltered from the wind. Recorded as hardy at Kew where it was grown in semi-shade in leafy soil, it has certainly been hardy here since 1997.
It appears that the Podophyllum grown as P. chengii is now regarded as being within the range of variation of this species. We are offering here the cultivar known as P. chengii Hunan which is grown for its beautifully coloured juvenile foliage, where the centre of each rectangular or polygonal leaf is a radiating, dusky sage-green star surrounded by a wide and deep purple border into which the sage green infuses and whorls.
