The Joyful Botanist: Let this umbrella make you smile
Among the largest simple leaves found in the Southern Appalachian woods is on the umbrella leaf plant. Adam Bigelow photo
Were you suddenly stuck on a north facing hillside in the Blue Ridge mountains during a Summer thunderstorm and were without jacket or hood, in theory you could pull off the leaf of one of my favorite wildflowers, flip it upside down and wear it on your head like one of those cheesy umbrella hats — that is, if you are near to where the umbrella leaf grows.
Some of the largest simple leaves found in the Southern Appalachian woods are on the umbrella leaf plant (Diphyllea cymosa). Leaves of the umbrella leaf can be over a foot-and-a-half wide and a foot long, which makes for a very large surface area that is only smaller than the bigleaf magnolia (Magnolia macrophylla).
I keep saying “largest simple leaf” because the award for largest leaves in the forest goes to the devil’s walking stick (Aralia spinosa), whose compound leaves, made up of multiple leaflets, can grow upward of five feet long and four feet wide. A simple leaf is a leaf blade that is one piece, even as it may be lobed or dissected. A compound leaf has two or more distinct leaflets.
For a single, simple leaf, however, the umbrella leaf is certainly impressive, giving the appearance of a tropical rainforest plant with large-leaved plants competing for limited sunlight and hoping to collect as much rainwater as possible. Those two functions are the main advantages of having such big leaves.
Similar in growth habit to mayapples (Podophylum peltatum), the young plants of umbrella leaf will have a single, round, lobed leaf emanating from a central point above the leaf stalk attachment. When the plant attains sexual maturity, it will produce two fan-shaped leaves that look like the large single leaf was split in two. That’s because it was.
Flowers of umbrella leaf are born between these split leaves. Unlike the similar mayapple, whose flowers hang below the split leaves, umbrella leaf flowers emerge from the axle — or connection — of the two leaves and is displayed up above them. The flowers are white with yellow stamens and are clustered in a flat inflorescence of multiple flowers.
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Once the flowers are pollinated, the stalks turn a vivid red and the berries turn blue. This coloration helps the fruits stand out from the background, helping birds and other animals involved in dispersal, to see them better. It also makes for a stunning visual display that equals the beauty of the flowers.
Umbrella leaf spreads by both seed and underground by rhizomes which makes for some large stands and colonies of these large-leaved plants. They like to grow in areas where water is close to the surface, helping to keep their roots moist. I find them growing on north facing slopes with springs and seepages. You’ll want to take this into consideration if you are trying to grow these in a shady garden, as they will want a lot of moisture. I don’t see this plant sold in the nursery trade, so if you want to add it to your garden, you could harvest ripe seeds and see if you can get them established by sowing them as soon as they are viable.
This umbrella only covers the forest floor in the Blue Ridge area of Southern Appalachia and can be found in the mountains of North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and rarely in South Carolina and Virginia. However, it has close relatives that live in the similar ecosystems that occur in parts of China and Japan. Those plants share the genus Diphyllea but are different species. Diphyllea cymose is a true Southern Appalachian rarity that I feel is to be celebrated and protected.
(The Joyful Botanist leads weekly wildflower walks most Fridays and offers consultations and private group tours through Bigelow’s Botanical Excursions. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)
