Butterbur
Petasites hybridus
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Flowers first on bare pink spikes, then grows leaves big enough to have wrapped butter.
A riverside perennial that does everything in the wrong order: thick pinkish flower spikes push up through bare ground in early spring, and only afterwards do the leaves appear — enormous rhubarb-like rounded leaves up to a metre across. Butterbur forms extensive colonies along the Nith and other riverbanks and damp meadows around Dumfries.
Behaviour
The name comes from the old use of those huge leaves to wrap butter in hot weather. The early flowers are an important nectar source for the first bumblebees and hoverflies of the year. Male and female flowers grow on separate plants, and in Britain male plants dominate overwhelmingly, so most colonies spread by rhizome rather than seed.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Daisies (Asteraceae)
- Height
- Flower spikes 10–40 cm; leaves to 1 m across
- Status
- Native; common on riverbanks and damp ground
Photo by Ivar Leidus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons