On 13/09/2019 20:35, Terry Pinnell wrote:
Could someone kindly identify this plant we came across on a recent walk in South
Cornwall please?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cft2kqjt8k...lant.jpg?raw=1

Terry, East Grinstead, UK


Gunnera manicata

On 13/09/2019 20:55, David Hill wrote:
On 13/09/2019 20:35, Terry Pinnell wrote:
Could someone kindly identify this plant we came across on a recent
walk in South
Cornwall please?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cft2kqjt8k...lant.jpg?raw=1

Terry, East Grinstead, UK


Gunnera manicata

I think it may have been banned from sale? due to the number of garden
escapees!

--
Charlie Pridham
Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk

On 14/09/2019 11:31, Charlie Pridham wrote:
On 13/09/2019 20:55, David Hill wrote:
On 13/09/2019 20:35, Terry Pinnell wrote:
Could someone kindly identify this plant we came across on a recent
walk in South
Cornwall please?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cft2kqjt8k...lant.jpg?raw=1

Terry, East Grinstead, UK


Gunnera manicata

I think it may have been banned from sale? due to the number of garden
escapees!


Gunnera is an invasive plant in the west of Ireland and the Outer
Hebrides (possibly also Kintyre and Knapdale - someone reported seeing
lots around there as well).

--
SRH

In article ,
Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:
On 14/09/2019 11:31, Charlie Pridham wrote:
On 13/09/2019 20:55, David Hill wrote:
On 13/09/2019 20:35, Terry Pinnell wrote:
Could someone kindly identify this plant we came across on a recent
walk in South
Cornwall please?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cft2kqjt8k...lant.jpg?raw=1

Gunnera manicata

I think it may have been banned from sale? due to the number of garden
escapees!

Not in the UK, it hasn't been. It's widely available.

Gunnera is an invasive plant in the west of Ireland and the Outer
Hebrides (possibly also Kintyre and Knapdale - someone reported seeing
lots around there as well).

On the other hand, almost all of the ecologies of the British Isles
are comprised entirely of recently invasive plants! Other than
Japanese knotweed (and, just possibly, Rhododendron ponticum in a
FEW locations), no recent introduction of land plants seems capable of
forming monocultures (the main ecological problem). It's a jungle out
there :-)


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On 14/09/2019 19:49, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:
On 14/09/2019 11:31, Charlie Pridham wrote:
On 13/09/2019 20:55, David Hill wrote:
On 13/09/2019 20:35, Terry Pinnell wrote:
Could someone kindly identify this plant we came across on a recent
walk in South
Cornwall please?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cft2kqjt8k...lant.jpg?raw=1

Gunnera manicata

I think it may have been banned from sale? due to the number of garden
escapees!

Not in the UK, it hasn't been. It's widely available.

It is still available but they are having a bit of bother with it
escaping in the milder areas of western Scotland. Logan botanical
gardens has an impressive stand of the stuff that must be about 100m
square with a path through the middle. It looks primaeval.

Gunnera is an invasive plant in the west of Ireland and the Outer
Hebrides (possibly also Kintyre and Knapdale - someone reported seeing
lots around there as well).

On the other hand, almost all of the ecologies of the British Isles
are comprised entirely of recently invasive plants! Other than
Japanese knotweed (and, just possibly, Rhododendron ponticum in a
FEW locations), no recent introduction of land plants seems capable of
forming monocultures (the main ecological problem). It's a jungle out
there :-)

Himalayan balsam is becoming quite a problem in North Yorkshire on
stream and river banks wiping out almost everything else and spreading
rapidly. Only Japanese knotweed out competes it. Nettles and rosebay
willow herb both die out after a few years leaving a monoculture.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:

Himalayan balsam is becoming quite a problem in North Yorkshire on
stream and river banks wiping out almost everything else and spreading
rapidly. Only Japanese knotweed out competes it. Nettles and rosebay
willow herb both die out after a few years leaving a monoculture.

I have never seen it do that, and I have been looking out for it for
several decades now. I believe you that it is a (very) localised
problem, but it assuredly isn't a widespread one. Every apparent
monoculture of it I have looked at has turned out to be, on closer
inspection, merely that it dominates the top layer and there is a
wide range of other species underneath it.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Mon, 16 Sep 2019 12:10:50 Nick Maclaren wrote:

In article ,
Martin Brown wrote:

Himalayan balsam is becoming quite a problem in North Yorkshire on
stream and river banks wiping out almost everything else and spreading
rapidly. Only Japanese knotweed out competes it. Nettles and rosebay
willow herb both die out after a few years leaving a monoculture.

I have never seen it do that, and I have been looking out for it for
several decades now. I believe you that it is a (very) localised
problem, but it assuredly isn't a widespread one. Every apparent
monoculture of it I have looked at has turned out to be, on closer
inspection, merely that it dominates the top layer and there is a
wide range of other species underneath it.

Interesting about rosebay willowherb (or should it be rose bay willow
herb? - I've never been sure). I remember my father pointing out to me
the way that it colonised bomb sites during the second world war
especially in London. Then for most of my life it seemed to have
disappeared only to reappear in the last few years, and for the first
time I have some springing up in my garden.

David

--
David Rance writing from Caversham, Reading, UK