Syneilesis

[Lori S.]

I've been watching for these, and here is the first hairy little troll emerging! 
Syneilesis aconitifolia, from seed in 2008:

[Todd Boland]

Funky!  I've never tried them.

[Carlo A. Balistrieri]

Wonderful plant...I've had it around for years (going from garden to garden with me). My clump here is now 18 or so stalks. It is much further along than Lori's--already putting up buds. While the flowers are beautiful (at least when you get close), it is the early, felty growth pushing through the ground like some kind of green mushroom that is really the star.

[McDonough]

Wonderful plant...I've had it around for years (going from garden to garden with me). My clump here is now 18 or so stalks. It is much further along than Lori's--already putting up buds. While the flowers are beautiful (at least when you get close), it is the early, felty growth pushing through the ground like some kind of green mushroom that is really the star.

Carlo, mine sounds like it's at a similar state as your plants, already showing flower stalks and the plants getting big.  The best part of this plant is the spring foliage emergence.  The plant gets fairly large, 18" (45 cm) tall or so, and spreading to 2' (60 cm) in 5-6 years.

For those who are curious, this is a small genus of Asian plants in the Asteraceae, related to Ligularia.  It is available from a number of nurseries, here's the Plant Delights Nursery listing:
http://www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/Current/Detail/03400.html

[Hoy]

I have tried this plant several times but you know, do I have to repeat? (The slugs of course.)
I haven't stopped trying so 6 seedlings wait to be big enough to be planted out!

[RickR]

I grew Syneilesis aconitifolia from seed in 2008 also.  That summer, circumstances caused an overflow of my roof rain gutters, splashing water down on the seedlings.  When I came home from work that evening, I found half of the soil washed out of all the pots, and the leaves supported by the convergence of root "stilts" at the crown.  Yet almost every one survived.  

Picture #2 is in 2009.  Only a few plants produce more than one leaf that season.  The single blue pot filled with round leaves is first year seedlings of Syneilesis intermedia.

[RickR]

1. Syneilesis aconitifolia on left (third season), Syneilesis intermedia on the right (second season).  I am not sure if the upturned leaves of S. intermedia is indicative of the species or not.  This is only their second season, and I have yet to have another year to compare.  All is fine now, but at the time this pic was taken, they seemed a little peaked, like they are in pots to large for their size.

2. Another "treat" for buyers at our Society plant sale coming up.

[McDonough]

1. Syneilesis aconitifolia on left (third season), Syneilesis intermedia on the right (second season).  I am not sure if the upturned leaves of S. intermedia is indicative of the species or not.  This is only their second season, and I have yet to have another year to compare.  All is fine now, but at the time this pic was taken, they seemed a little peaked, like they are in pots to large for their size.

2. Another "treat" for buyers at our Society plant sale coming up.

Rick, you're like a one-man nursery   Awesome seeing all those potted seedlings, once again I think all of us want to come to your NARGS chapter meetings!  Not familiar with S. intermedia, but even in the young plants, I love the upswept pagoda arrangement of the leaves.

[RickR]

Well I wasn't kidding when I said I was a mad propagator.  Anyone here is welcome at my house.  I like to see the variation in species, so I like to grow many plants.  I have both white flowering and pink flowering S. aconitifolia.  Currently, I have Anemone rivularis growing from seed from several sources.  (I just hope those sources didn't all get theirs from the same place.)

It's a lot of fun having a forest of miniature "palm trees" outside my kitchen window.
Syneilesis aconitifolia, still immature foliage.

[McDonough]

Show me your Syneilesis aconitifolia flowers (or other Syneilesis species)!  Actually, there isn't much to them, I usually cut off the stems, but left them on this year to remind myself why I cut them off. 

A magnificent dry summer day here, 80 F (22 C), hypnotic strong breezes and occasional northwest gusts made getting photos difficult to focus.  The flowering stems lean, they would be 3-1/2' (105 cm) tall if they stood straight, and the flowers.... eesh, just whitish things along the lines of a Prenanthes , the involucre stained dull lavender.  I'll try to get a better photo if it's not so windy tomorrow.  Rick, you mentioned your plants having "pink" flowers... let's see them.

[Hoy]

I agree! The flowers are not much to beheld but without flower no seed!
I have planted out some of my seedlings and wonder if they are still alive when I get back home.

[Todd Boland]

Rick, if you ever get seed......what a great sale you must have.  Wish I could be there!

[McDonough]

I should add, as negligible as the flowers are, they do have a sweet scent.

[RickR]

Mine haven't opened yet.  Withholding a final judgment, but so far it looks like prenanthus is the better flower.  Actually, we have a very nice wild pendant species that grows in the moist areas here.

Will see about seed, Todd.  Although in the garden, one I planted did not flower, and the other, the flower stem broke off.  Seed would be from woefully underpotted plants, and therefore may not be in the best of health.  It is surprising, however, to observe the tenacity of the species under these adverse conditions.

[Lori S.]

Nothing to offer here re. flowering... I still have only single-leaf plants, but I'm pleased that both S. aconitifolia and S. palmata have made it through 2 winters now!