 Photo ©
Carl Farmer |
Quite frequent in wet lowland places Flowering shoots up to c 40 cm tall, lengthening to as much as 90 cm in fruit. Leaves up to 100 cm across. ID: Unmistakable in flower or fruit. Young leaves like Coltsfoot but coarsely and closely toothed, not with a polygonal outline, and have veins along the edges at the start of the basal lobes. Adult leaves huge, arising singly, forming patches that cover large areas of ground. These could only be confused with rhubarb which persists in formerly cultivated places, but rhubarb has several leaves arising from a single crown. Other features: All local plants are likely to be of the "male" form which has up to 5 female florets and about 30 sterile ones in each flowerhead. Any of the "female" form, with about 100 female florets and up to 3 sterile ones, would be of great interest. |
