Asian Podophyllums at Plantmad

We have several Asian Podophylluums growing in the Plantmad Garden, these strange looking herbaceous relatives of Berberis often look more like something out of an episode of  Dr. Who than they do a real plant!
Here are a few photos of what they look like this week in the garden.

Podophyllum pleianthum

Podophyllum pleianthum native to central & Southern China is probably the toughest of them all, at least in our garden, bright green foliage that holds up well all summer & tolerates the dry hot Summers better than some of the others. Growing next to it is one we got from the old Heronswood Nursey, P. pleianthum x versipelle, sometimes I think I can tell the two apart & other times I can't!

P. pleianthum x versipelle

Growing in a dark corner of one of the greenhouses is P. difforme. Also native to Central & Southern China the plant seems to be a particular favorite of slugs & an unprotected plant has little chance of surviving their voracious appetites!

P. difforme

The P. difforme most commonly available in the trade is the cultivar form 'Kaleidoscope' which has more mottling & color on the leaves.

P. difforme 'Kaleidoscope' 

One of the more vigorous plants we have is a hybrid from Northwest Garden Nursery of  P. delavayi and P. pleianthum. The plant getting it's deep colored foliage from P. delavayi & it's vigor from P. pleianthum. This cross was later given the cultivar name 'Red Panda' but we purchased ours before the Red Panda selection when they were selling seedlings of the cross.

P. delavayi x P. pleianthum

I've saved my favorite for last, P. delavayi, the first time I saw one of these I didn't even think it was a real plant! Luckily it wasn't for sale at any price which was a good thing as I would have paid any price for it. Luckily a few years later I was able to buy a young seedling from Ernie & Marietta O'Byrne at Northwest Garden Nursery.

P. delavayi