Darmera sp.

Weird, I had never seen it before, and I've done a lot of hiking. I have several clumps of Gunnera. They didn't do very well this year. One clump died. Thank you for the positive ID.

There is a colony of them growing in a drainage ditch next to a rather busy residential road on the way to my sister's house. I tend not to notice them except for in early spring when the flowers pop up (before any leaves), as they are very early bloomers, about the same time the Indian plum is in bloom.

btw, another easy way to ID darmera is to see how the leaves are attached to stems/petiole........the stems attach in the center of the large rounded leaf like an umbrella (peltate), forming a cup shaped recepticle. This gives rise to both the species designation, peltata, as well as the common name, umbrella plant.

Gunnera leaves attach to the stem at their base.

Also the leaves of Gunnera do not have a circular outline.

"Darmera peltata is found in the Sierra Nevada of California from Tulare County to Siskiyou County and in the Klamath Mountains and Coast Range from Humboldt County in California to Benton County, Oregon"

http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=220003860

Any local wild-looking occurrences will have spread from gardens or have some other human involvement in their background*. The only plant of this general nature - that is creeping root-stocks producing early flower heads at the ends of elongating stalks, followed by large lobed leaves on separate stems - that is native locally is Petasites frigidus var. palmatus.

*Not listed by Jacobson, Wild Plants of Seattle - Second Edition (2008) as having been seen in any version of living wild in the Seattle area

I got off on the wrong foot several years ago when a friend who has Darmera insisted on calling it Gunnera. She says it's labeled Gunnera at Soos Creek Gardens. I'll have to check it out.

Mike as usual your garden looks great. I am amused monkey puzzle can grow in the same vicinity. The handful on the east coast seem to need very, very well drained soil.

I wonder if Darmera is a little more heat tolerant than gunnera. Not sure why I've never tried one.

Good spot, David! There is about three feet elevation difference. The area does dry out a bit for a few weeks in the summer allowing the Araucaria to survive. Eventually the Lawson cypress will shade it out. Either that, or I remove the cypress and let the Monkey Puzzle tree survive. Poor planning on my part. I never intended to let the cypress remain where it is which highlights the dangers of planting something 'temporarily'.