Petasites japonicus

Petasites japonicas

 

Common name: butterbur, fuki

Family: Asteraceae

Leaf: Large (up to 32" wide), rounded, basal, 'colt's foot-like' shaped leaves. Alternate. Flowering stem leaves stalkless, scale-like, ovate, with rounded tip, light green. Vegetative leaves long-stalked, , irregularly toothed, underside sparsely hairy, upper surface almost glabrous, basal lobes with rounded tip, curving towards each other

Flowers: Dioecious. emerge before the leaves in early spring (Feb-March) Single flower-like capitula surrounded by bracts. Disk florets yellowish, tubular. Bracts lime green or brown.  Borne in a wide corymb.

Habit: rhizomatous herbaceous perennial; Form: low mounded

Height: 4-20"

Culture: Succeeds in ordinary garden soil, prefers moist humus rich garden soil, in part shade to full shade. A very invasive plant, roots very difficult to get rid of.
Uses: More for a wilder garden, groundcover, massing, large space
Origin: China, Japan, Korea