Mikania araucana
http://www.plantworld-devon.co.uk/ has seed of this, and it looks like an interesting plant. Although most of the mikanias are horrible weeds in the subtropics, this one appears to be a vine with very showy leaves. Their description:
Twining, woody stems bear very distinctive, silver-grey veined, jagged-edged, thick shiny leaves. Massed clusters of small creamy-white flowers appear over a prolonged season. Discovered growing in the cold, often snowy forests of "Monkey Puzzle" trees in the Southern Chilean Andes.
You can find a little picture on their website.
Aside from the jagged edges, the leaves to me look like a good alocacia, or maybe a strobilanthes.
Does anyone have any more information on this plant?
Robb Smith
Salt Spring Island BC
The following thread was started by Robb Smith on December 31, 2005 at 8:57 pm PST
Hey Robb--sounds like you should be the guy to try this one, and maybe a bunch of other Chilean goodies, and let us know how they do. I think you're almost 2 zones warmer than me, so your chances are a lot better than over here!
I've been germinating some "rarities" from Plantworld Devon these past few months...interesting experience. So far, a lot of "Andean rarities" look a lot like "Andean weeds"...flax and evening primroses from Chile coming first to mind.
Still, I do seem to have some promising plants from those guys, esp. a good number of what looks to be greigia...did you ever try this plant or were you just thinking about bromeliads in general, I think it was a year or two ago that the topic came up (?)
Chile has so many neat plants, but so few that are hardy enough to not need a lot of babysitting...something from the monkey puzzle forests is a good start tho...we do have araucarias in Vancouver that have been around since the 1930's. Where are the other Chilean goodies that also have that kind of hardiness!
The above followup was added by Glen in Surrey on January 01, 2006 at 9:24 am PST.
You probably have more than you think. I have Crinodendrom h., Ugli, Desfonatia(spelling?) azaras...just some I can think off the top of my head..
The above followup was added by dare on January 02, 2006 at 3:43 pm PST.
Sounds cool though. Asteraceae, from monkey puzzle forests, one would think it can't be too difficult???? Though possibly needing better soil drainage than many of us have. Maihuenia poepigii also grows with Araucaria araucana in drier areas.... but then in wetter areas you have things like Anemone magellanica growing with A. araucana. I consider A. araucana to be totally hardy and pretty much foolproof around here... unless you let it dry up.
Greigia, I was dissuaded from trying it again (after planting it twice with no germination) by my friends on the UK Oasis who think it is ugly. What do you think of your plants? However they have got me all fired up about growing some Polylepis, if I can find a source!
Speaking of Chilean plants. I have been intrigued to learn recently that Trichocereus chilensis grows in the vicinity of Curico, Chile which is rather cold and VERY WET in winter (although I suspect the data below.... it is still rather wet)!! Surely a good provenance of this plant has to have a shot at growing in a well-drained, south facing spot in the Pacific Northwest?
The above followup was added by Ian on January 02, 2006 at 6:28 pm PST.
Ian, Chile is the only place in the world I am aware of that has Cacti endemic to winter-rainfall areas. They stray into such climates elsewhere, but in Chile they are quite common.
Chile has a lot of botanical anomalies like that. It is probably partly due to the relative newness of the Andes.
Whenever I have seen photographs of big columnar cacti growing in Chile, it has always been in hilly country. I bet drainage is good.
I think Cacti are more typical of the La Sirena end of the Med zone, but I think they actually occur all the way to at least Valparaiso in suitable situations. Curico is even further south and it probably is pretty rainy. Rainfall in Chile correlates more to latitude than it does on the west coast of North America. It's not so much like parts of California where a rainbelt and a rainshadow tend to occur with distance inland.
The above followup was added by Rob Wagner on January 03, 2006 at 7:04 pm PST.
dare--how hardy have your Chilean shrubs been? I have only the crinodendron so far, and want to baby them until I get some cuttings going for insurance. Another fellow has found desfontainia very borderline hardy, any observations?
Ian, my greigia's or whatever they are are only a month or two old from seed...and look like miniature aloes at this point. No comment on whether they will turn out ugly! I'm hoping to get more info from Ray Brown as to what they might be...I know he does have some greigia seed tho it was not listed as being in the mixture that these came from. Otherwise, the only bromeliads he sells seem to be fascicularia, and some puyas...if those are bromeliads!
Ray's garden near Torquay would be mild like SSI tho, so what he grows and distributes is sometimes out of my "hardiness" league.
The above followup was added by Glen in Surrey on January 03, 2006 at 10:52 pm PST.
I couldn't help reading this post about Chilean cacti. I've been to Chile several times and my parents are actually from that region from the country. Curico and the surrounding inland areas can be unbearably hot in the summer at times but during the winter it rains alot. As far as temps go there is always a bit of freezing in that area. But getting to -5c is quite uncommon and something below -5c is a freak temperature (depending on altitude). Anyone driving the pana- americana highway south from Santiago can spot those tall columnar cacti on the north side of the hills up until about Curico.
Around Valparaiso in many parts they are like weeds growing in ravines and steep hills and with the rare jubeas. Going to La Serena you see more types of cacti as well as puyas and desert shrubs.
I think for these cacti to be succesful in the PNW they should be planted in soil made out of entirely of sand and gravel. Good luck growing them.
As a side note I was in Chile this past Febuary and I planted a jub and very small trachy at my grandmas place to go along with her 1.5metre washigtonia. That bad thing about Chile is the lack of palm species available. Every nursery i went they just had trachys, p canariensis and washys. Maybe next time i go ill bring some syagrus seeds or something more exotic.
The above followup was added by Andrew on January 04, 2006 at 10:51 pm PST.