Horticulture/Podophyllum

Podophyllum is a genus of six species of herbaceous perennial plants in the family ../Berberidaceae/, native to eastern Asia (five species) and eastern North America (one species). They are woodland plants, typically growing in colonies derived from a single root.

Description
The stems grow to 30–40 cm tall, with palmately lobed umbrella-like leaves up to 20–40 cm diameter with 3–9 shallowly to deeply cut lobes. The plants produce several stems from a creeping underground rhizome; some stems bear a single leaf and do not produce any flower or fruit, while flowering stems produce a pair or more leaves with 1–8 flowers in the axil between the apical leaves. The flowers are white, yellow or red, 2–6 cm diameter with 6–9 petals, and mature into a green, yellow or red fleshy fruit 2–5 cm long.

Species

 * ../Podophyllum aurantiocaule/. Southwest China (Yunnan).
 * ../Podophyllum delavayi/. Southwest China.
 * ../Podophyllum hexandrum/. Western China, Himalaya.
 * ../Podophyllum peltatum/ - Mayapple. Eastern North America.
 * ../Podophyllum pleianthum/. Central and southeast China.
 * ../Podophyllum versipelle/. China, Tibet.