Giant leaves

Sorry the pics are not really good but perhaps someone can still ID the plant for me.

The leaves are big and still growing. At the moment they are up to 55 cm long and 25 cm wide.






Here is one of the stalks and you can see how the leaf starts growing straight out of it, I think the stalks might be hollow.




The plant grows up to 2 meters tall and the flowers are yellow and tassely / thread-like.

 

KG.This plant looks and sounds just like a plant we have growing in our garden and the description is identical to ours.My father-in- law gave us two plants which took 3 years to flower,which they did for the first time last year.I will have to ask him to ask his neighbour for the name because he couldn't remember.The slugs and snails love the leaves,wheras on yours they are perfect...

 

Kandy, I'm in luck with getting quick ID's today as this is the second one! Well, recognized but still nameless, but hopefully not for long.

Hubby got the seeds from DIL's father's garden (where the Pretty in Purple also came from!). Where he got the plant from we have no idea and unfortunately we can't ask any more.

Ours flowered in the first year if we remember correctly. I'll send you some of our seeds later in the year if you like.

The snails and slugs don't care for it (TG!) but they do love some other plants we have.

 

The giant-leafed plant now has a bud developing - and the leaves are getting bigger than ever.

 

Hi Kedi, I think we are now waiting with bated breath to see the flowers, it may help to id it.
I first thought of a giant Verbascum, like densiflorum, but the flowers are not 'tassely / thread-like' in any way.

 

The Gunnera has ery large leaves, but they look very much like rhuibarb. This is just a thought - the shape and colour don't seem right.

 

Sorry, Blackthorn and Laurie, I've just got back here but No, neither one is correct. Kandy might have found out though, she did give me a name, which stupid me forgot to make a note of.

 

KG.The name I gave you was 'Inula'.That is what the yellow flowers look like when they come out.My FIL will find out the proper name from the lady who gave us the plants in the first place

 

That was it, Kandy! Thanks for telling me again. I have just googled it again and I think it is very possibly this one -

http://www.natur-lexikon.com/Texte/km/001/00006-alant/km00006-alant.html

 

Have just found one in English (after I discovered the name Horseheal) that has a picture of it too.

I wonder if your FIL's neighbour knows it by the same or a different name, Kandy.

http://www.mdidea.com/products/new/new099.html


I've been looking some more before posting this and came upon the word "Dock". I can remember dock leaves as a kid and hearing that they were good for ... what? Rubbing on an insect bite? At any rate, the Inula and the dock leaves look similar. This might be something to ask Wyldeflower about.

 

Hi KG I will have a look at the link later as I am in the middle of doing my ironing and having to fight off the snails as they try to come through my open window :eek:

We used Dock leaves when we were kids for nettle stings.We used to pick one damage it,spit on it and then rubbed it onto the stings.Not sure which bit did the job,the dock or the spit. :D :D

[ 22. June 2007, 10:53 AM: Message edited by: Kandyfloss ]

 

Oh my goodness, snails trying to come through your open window! I'd have a screaming fit. Whatever do you have near the window that is attracting them?

Stinging nettles, that was what we used dock leaves for. Thanks for jogging my memory.

 

Good pics of Inula here:
http://www.uwgb.edu/biodiversity/herbarium/invasive_species/inuhel01.htm
The plant that I know as Dock has leaves the right shape but they are shiny?
www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/species/ruob.htm

 

I would never have guessed Inula, I think I was confused with the flower description Kedi - I was imagining tassels of thread-like flowers hanging down :D
I have a Inula but mine is much smaller and the leaves are different.

 

Good link Liz and you are right, dock leaves are shiney.

Blackthorn, sorry my description was so unclear about the flowers, but I couldn't think of anything else at the time!