Just how big do Tetrapanax get?

[MartinNicklin]

I’m very fond of this plant. It’s only 8 years old and I was given it by Carol from Penzance when I went down to Cornwall in exchange for some red flowered Musschia plants. Incidentally Carol was a lovely lady and regular contributor on GOTE but I’ve not heard anything about her in years so I hope she is well???
Anyway, my plant has turned into a monster and I’m in a quandary. I planted it right next to the garage (inches!) thinking it would perish in a cold winter and the wall might afford it some protection. Now I’m getting worried. It sends up runners all over the place including in amongst other plants and under my paving:



Some of its “babies” I have left and they in turn have turned into big plants (though I can’t get 90% of them to successfully pot up):



But … the mother plant is in a different league. Its trunk is almost 2ft in circumference and it is over 5 metres tall (going on two house floors being about 2.5 metres each). I’ve not seen one this big in all my travels which is great in one way but not in another. Does anybody have one bigger or know if it likely to get much bigger in which case I might have to do the unthinkable?








As a “relatively” new plant on the scene and up and down in terms of availability, I see they still command ridiculous prices for larger specimens but they seldom come with a warning about how they spread nor the size they achieve.

I saw some at Oxford Botanic Gardens. They were a fraction of the size and seemed to be suffering. I wondered if they had been given weed killer if they were seen to be getting out of hand:





And I saw some nice ones by the canals at St Pancras, but again the trunks were nowhere near the size of mine:






To begin with I used to wrap the growing tips in fleece for the winter but it is a) now to big for me to do this and b) I guessed a bad winter would ease my worries for me! If mine has reached its limit, I can breath a sigh of relief but if anyone knows differently …?

[KLaban]

The largest I've seen are growing against the ruins at Nymans Garden in Sussex. Huge trunk and leaves. Well worth a visit.

Mine, thankfully, is well behaved with a single trunk. Let's face it, they can be absolute thugs!

[KLaban]

Martin, your Tetrapanax looks very different compared to mine and to the Nymans garden specimens. In both cases the leaves are far more divided whereas yours, particularly the lower leaves, look complete. Your photo seems to show a divided leaf form in the foreground. I visited Nymans again today, like yours the plants are huge but the multiple trunks appear much slimmer.

I know that Tetrapanax papyrifer is highly variable but those leaves on your giant do look very different.

[MartinNicklin]

When it was younger the leaves were much bigger - your oft quoted metre wide ones. It has now grown into a much branched tree and the leaves are smaller, much like you get with unpollarded Paulownia and Catalpa. I did post an image on GOTE of one of its offspring which had tri-lobed foliage with no other divisions but, as with almost all of my attempts to pot up suckers, it fizzled away.
It’s the trunk on mine which I find so astonishing. It’s far more girthy than any I have seen anywhere else and my worry is that it’s only inches from the garage wall. If someone can tell me a definitive maximum girth I might be able to relax a little. For an 8 year old, it seems incredibly large.
PS I think you are correct about the large variation in the family. I was astonished to read the other day of a place, I forget where, which holds the National Collection of Tetrapanax. I had no idea there were sufficient types to merit such an accolade.

[Taffy]

Martin , the national collection is at Walmer Castle c/o Philip Oostenbrink. Among the collection is one of my rare Empress forms. The form you have from Carol is referred to as Cornish Groove, with ruffled deeper keeled lobes. I also grow Cornish Groove here along with several Empress , Di Sue Shan and Meifeng. My plants have only been in the ground a short while following a house move but in terms of leaf size, Empress is about 1.2m. I don't have an up to date pic but the one dated Nov 24 will give you an idea. It's actually above the surrounding palms now. Although slightly smaller in leaf size than the Empress, Meifeng has the most impressive leaf imo. I've included a pic of it next to Cornish Groove which is still settling. I haven't had a chance to plant Di Sue Shan as of yet, that came from Peter. Pic 3 and 4 is Empress, 5 Meifeng and 6 Cornish Groove ...

[MartinNicklin]

That’s amazing Taffy to be given a definitive ID of my plant. Thank you so much. I had no idea there were so many. Your plants look amazing. Do you think my Cornish Groove is likely to get much bigger? In which case I don’t think I can safely keep it, which would sadden me.

[Taffy]

Hi Martin.
The RHS is saying 4/8m which is probably right as it's classed as a small tree. Most of the examples I've seen in the UK tend to be about the 5m mark with the exception of Bristol botanic gardens which I'd say stands closer to 8m than anything I've witnessed ..



There were some tall plants I saw in Madeira and Tenerife but they were very leggy and small leafed , not the best. Also came across my first Steroidal Giant on a wee break to West Wales. It was in Picton Castle gardens and judging by the amount of stems has been there many years. Given it's name I'd say "Giant" is a stretch of the imagination in height and leaf size, probably 4m tops.....

[Paul S]

The entry for the species, and it's forms, has recently been updated in Trees and Shrubs Online - the author going to some lengths to get an accurate overview.

https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/ar ... papyrifer/

[KLaban]

Paul, thanks for the link, fascinating stuff! It seems that variable was an understatement!

[Andrew in Germany]

Here's my Steroidal Giant. Bought many ears ago. It pups most years and I've taken a number and potted them up. The rest get mowed over. No pups this year strangely. I suppose it would be a lot taller if it would grow without losing its growing points to frost. But as for 1 meter large leaves I can't say this is a reality here. Steroidal Giant and the Rex forms are completely indistinguishable from each other and to my rather relaxed eye, as neither can grow unimpaired from the winters.

I know that the source garden for my SG has a huge one growing in dense shade from Bamboos. It is however nowhere near the height and magnitude of yours, Martin. I would be very happy if I had something of that here.