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A tall, rather leggy species endemic to La Palma in the Canary Islands. It turns out not to be very cold hardy. The Garden Riots blog says: "Sonchus palmensis is endemic to the the single island of La Palma, which at only 1.5 million years is the second youngest of the seven Canaries. Three other members of the Alliance can be found there. It occurs around the entire island growing at elevations between 600′ and 3,300′, often on quite steeply sloping and rocky terrain, though its most commonly found on the eastern side. Pictures will show this growing out of rock piles suggesting that they will want very good drainage. Because they are quite common on La Palma they are listed as ‘of least concern’ by the IUCN. The foliage is very similar in form to that found growing around the rosette of our local annual Sow Thistle, on this species forming leaves closely attached to one another near the terminals of each branch, giving the plants what some would term their gawky appearance and others would describe as ‘Dr. Seussian’. The stems grow up to 6′ tall, branching irregularly on mostly bare stems. At flowering, a many branched inflorescence forms at the terminal carrying typical Asteraceae heads often described as ‘Dandelion like’, each floret, including all of the center disk florets, being ligulate with their two fused elongated petals and three diminished ones." I didn't manage to flower it but below is a picture of a mature plant in a friends garden. |
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| 19th October 2017 | ||
