Poorman's umbrella

Description:

The 40–50 species vary enormously in leaf size. The Giant Rhubarb, or Campos des Loges (Gunnera manicata), native to the Serra do Mar mountains of southeastern Brazil, is perhaps the largest species, with leaves typically 1.5 to 2.0 meters (4.9 to 6.6 ft) long (not including the thick, succulent leaf stalk (petiole) of up to 2.5 meters (8.2 feet)in length. The width is typically eight feet (2.5 meters), but on two separate occasions cultivated specimens (In Berkeshire, England quite recently[3] and at Narrowwater, Ulster,Ireland[4] in 1903) produced leaves fully eleven feet (3.4 meters) in width, making these leaves quite probably the largest of all dicot leaves. The seeds germinate best in very moist, but not wet, conditions and temperatures of 22–29 °C.

Habitat:

Gunnera species come from the tropics to the temperate zone südhemisphärisch. They have their areas throughout the southern Pacific and in Africa and Madagascar. They are therefore in the Neotropics and the Paläotropis. As wild plants are commonly found on roadsides and in the southwest of the island of Ireland.