Plant ID please

pammosley · #1 (**permalink**) 14-12-2009, 09:13 AM

Hi I saw this flowering at Brandon Marsh yesterday. I guess it`s cultivated as it was in a Sensory Garden.
Any help much appreciated, thanks for looking

Merrow · #2 (**permalink**) 14-12-2009, 09:54 AM

Oh I just replied to this on the other thread, it's elephant's ears...can't think of the proper name though, Brugsomething or other...

Jason Claxton · #3 (**permalink**) 14-12-2009, 10:00 AM

Bergenia cordifolia

Merrow · #4 (**permalink**) 14-12-2009, 10:14 AM

Thank you!

pammosley · #5 (**permalink**) 14-12-2009, 12:21 PM

Thanks Jason & Merrow

davidbr · #6 (**permalink**) 14-12-2009, 04:54 PM

There are actually four species of Bergenia found naturalised (or sort-of naturalised; most of the ones I see are obvious garden chuck-outs

) in Britain. They're all fairly similar and rather confusing, and it'd help to have a closer photo showing the teeth at the edge of the leaves.

I'm pretty sure yours is actually Bergenia x schmidtii, though, Hybrid Elephant-ears; its' leaves usually stay green in winter, whereas Bergenia crassfolia turns reddish. The clincher is the teeth at the edge of the leaves; they have bristles in B. x schmidtii, and don't in B. crassifolia.

pammosley · #7 (**permalink**) 15-12-2009, 08:58 AM

Hi, here`s a closer view of the leaves, looks like they have bristles making it Bergenia Schmidtii, I think! Thanks for your help everyone, I`m enjoying learning about plants

davidbr · #8 (**permalink**) 15-12-2009, 08:58 PM

Yes, that looks like Bergenia x schmidtii - I've not yet found one in the wild myself, but it meets the description perfectly

B. x schmidtii is meant to be the commonest one now, and maybe it is in cultivation, but all the naturalised plants I've ever found have been Bergenia crassifolia or B. cordifolia - a lot of these modern horticultural hybrids aren't fully fertile, so they only occur in the wild as chuck-outs on rubbish heaps