MinxterBLOOM

Some garden plants warrant careful forethought. Gunnera—aka the dinosaur food plant – might be such a backyard fancy. The sheer size of Gunnera manicata, hardy to USDA Zone 7 is a chief charm. Long ago when (my) children were little I wanted to plant this if only to say, “Go play under the dinosaur food plant, Phoebe.” Or “Percy, use a Gunnera leaf as an umbrella today.” Recently I posted this musing as a suggestion on a non-gardening blog. Stunned I was, in my best Yoda voice, at the immediate responses, many  from Canadian posters: DMD posted links of what she called “Giant Rhubarb” The first shot includes a leggy blue heron in the foreground, which serves as a nice yardstick. Her second image directed me to Buchart Gardens in Vancouver. Another poster tipped that Gunnera leaves would be visible from Google maps – if the local features the highest resolution image.  Gunnera mediations continued over two days of Achenblog threads. DoftC (botany-guy) wrote: "The genus Gunnera seems to form its own family (although it's been grouped with water milfoil)." He sent readers to a fascinating plant classification systems hosted at UC Berkeley called Deep Green  The Deep Green system places Gunnera kind-of off by itself." DofC mused on the eco-instances of Gunnera. “Remarkably, Hawaii has native Gunneras in the mountains. Their ancestors must have come from South America, presumably via bird-mail.” Bird-mail? I love that idea and can attest to several such plants in my yard: Blue Star (Amsonia) as a thumbs-up and pop- up poison ivy as a clear thumbs-down. But my favorite Gunnera tale comes by way of knitting maestra DR who loves liverworts and lichens and slime molds (oh my!). DR’s in-laws harbor a Gunnera in the backyard.” They refer to it as the plant that took over the backyard. They also call it the plant that ate the cat. It didn't really, but only a cat could hide in it.” From this crowdsource report, Gunnera adores the Canadian maritime climate, which mashes up nicely with the genus name. Named for a Norwegian botanist Johann Ernst Gunnerus, Gunnera is a plant that like its namesake, trotted far from home. Image: Answers.com: G. manicata and unknown man in Devon, England.