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Telanthophora grandifolia (Giant Groundsel) - An evergreen shrub or low branched small tree that can grows to 10 to 16 feet tall in cool coastal gardens, but can maintained much lower (4 to 6 feet tall) by pruning. It has massive scalloped 18-24-inch-long elliptic to ovate leaves are held on stout 2- to 6-inch-long petioles that emerge from thick stems covered with an interesting stubble of stout glandular hairs. Repeatedly throughout the year but primarily in winter appear the dinner-plate-sized clusters at branch tips of hundreds of small golden composite flowers with both ray and disk flowers that emit a nice aroma.
Plant in full to part coastal sun to semi-shady inland and irrigate regularly. Has proven cold hardy to short duration temperatures in the mid 20s° F. An interesting and attractive a tropical looking plant that can be a standalone specimen or used for screening. Its flowers attract bees and butterflies and adds a nice splash of winter color and scent to the garden.
Telanthophora grandifolia grows naturally over a large area of Central America from central Mexico south to western Panama where it is found in mountain forests (often oak-pine forests in the west and oak forests in the east) and along streams and slopes of volcanoes from 1,6,00 to 8,000 feet in elevation. It was first described as Senecio grandifolius in 1830 by the German botanist Christian Friedrich Lessing (1809-1862) an early botanical authority composite plant family (Asteraceae), from a collection of a plant in Guatemala with the specific epithet referencing the large leaves. The name was changed in 1974 when the Smithsonian botanists Harold Ernest Robinson and Robert D. Brettell constructed the new genus Telanthophora and moved this species into it based on the shape of the plant's anthers, publishing the names in Phytologia 27: 420 (1974). At that time they also moved previous Senecios into the closely related genus Roldana, including two that we continue to grow, Roldana aschenborniana and Roldana petasitis as well as Roldana cristobalensis. The name for this new genus comes from the combination of several Greek words, 'tele' meaning "end", 'anthera' meaning anther (tip of the stamen) and 'phoros' meaning "end" in reference to the differences in the shape of the anthers that separated the plants in this genus from those in the genus Senecio and Roldana.
The first time we saw this impressive plant was in 2012 on the southern edge of the great meadow in the Meso-American Cloud Forest Garden at the Strybing Arboretum (now the San Francisco Botanic Garden. Our large stock plant in our garden that produced the seed we grow this plant from was a plant won at auction at the 2019 International Plant Propagators Society (IPPS) Annual Meeting in Santa Cruz, California in September 2019 that was donated by Annie Hayes of Annie's Annuals.
This information about Telanthophora grandifolia displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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