Gunnera

I have a friend on the Sunshine Coast, here not in Australia, with an embankment covered with huge leafed Gunnera plants. Could you tell me which species it might be that would grow so well here? Also, while recently in Costa Rica cloud forests I saw a plant that looked very similar, but much smaller, all along the roadsides. Would this be a Gunnera too? I could not find mention of it in Wikipedia, except in Brazil, Colombia, and was curious.
Thanks,
lp

 

G. manicata, may be somewhat tender. G.insignis and G. talamancana. in Costa Rica

 

While a bank covered with gunnera here is not impossible, I wonder if that is really what they are. The friend would have had to have bought or started a whole bunch of them and planted them all over the whole bank. Is that what happened, or are these actually a spontanous population, as seems to be implied by your description (including the friend not knowing which kind of gunnera they had planted)? Might they actually be cow parsnip or giant hogweed (both Heracleum species), for instance?

 

Aye, any chance of a photo?

 

I left out fuki (Petasites japonicus), this spreader is more likely to be mistaken for gunnera due to the large broad leaf and could easily cover a damp bank in time.

 

I posted a photo (not the best) of a gunnera species I saw growing in the cloud forest of Panama, near the Costa Rican border. Maybe the same? I believe this is in the Talamanca mountain range.

http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=13985&highlight=gunnera

 

Chimera,
Thanks for your reply. I believe they made several of their own starts. It may be something other than Gunnera but they called it Gunnera and I did not consider any other option. Unfortunately the property has recently been sold so no pictures are likely. I just could not think of anything else that would have leaves that large. They are at leat 3-4 feet across & beautifully lush and healthy so the conditions must really agree with them.

 

Maybe G. chilensis which is also available in the retail outlets . See the little G. magellanica around , which is stoloniferous. Generally planted around ponds, bogs and creeks, high humidity. Some growers place the large leaves over the crown for winter protection.