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Although this started out as a Senecio in recent years it has escaped into Roldana to hide its weedy heritge
(there are Senecio that populate every tiny nook and cranny of the planet).
A shrubby groundsel from Mexico and one of the striking species of that legion.
Large velvet leaves are probably the most striking part, though the flowers come in winter, which is always interesting. I grow it in the greenhouse because it is probably a bit too tender for the open garden here but there are plenty of gardens in the area where it prospers in a protected spot. San Marcos Growers say: "Roldana petasitis is a shrubby member of the Groundsel group of the daisy family (Asteraceae) from the mountainous areas of Oaxaca of Mexico and is most commonly known and referred to as Senecio petasitis but is has been reclassified as Roldana petasitis. It has also been known as Cineraria petasitis and sometimes is referred to as the California Geranium. The name Roldana was published by Dr. Pablo de La Llave (1773 – 1833), a Mexican priest and naturalist, in 1925 to honor Eugenio Montaña y Roldan Otumbensi, who was thought to be a hero in a battle on the plains of Apam near Mexico City. This plant and the closely related Roldana petasitis as well as Roldana aschenborniana that we also grow were moved from Senecio to the genus Roldana in 1972 by Smithsonian botanists Harold Ernest Robinson and Robert D. Brettell in their "Studies in the Senecionae (Asteraceae): The Genera Psacaliopsis, Barkleyanthus, Telanthophora and Roldana" in Phytologia 27: 420 (1974)." |
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| 28th November 2008 | ||
