Large leaf tropical plants

[Jungle Yard]

Please share what plants do you grow in your tropical and subtropical gardens that possess huge leaves, more than 12" (30 cm) in size.

Excluding aroids, palms and cycads, bananas and heliconias.

Here is what I grow among a few others:

Theobroma cacao

Macaranga grandifolia

Wercklea ferox

 

Ficus auriculata 

Ficus dammaropsis

Syzygium macrocarpum

Santoricum koetjape

Leea macrophylla

[Palm crazy]

Here is one of mine... dracaena deremensis 'giganta' this picture is from last year so the plant is much bigger now.  Leaves are 36"/ 91.44 cm long.  My tree fern has 8'/ 243.84 cm long leaves.  

[Botanicus]

Coccoloba pubescens

[greysrigging]

Hard to beat the humble Caladium for that special colorful 'tropical' look.... 

[raimeiken]

Im so jealous, I love big showy foliage. But with our intense heat and dry weather here, those plants will be toast here. 

[Silas_Sancona]

3 hours ago, raimeiken said:

Im so jealous, I love big showy foliage. But with our intense heat and dry weather here, those plants will be toast here. 

If you have enough afternoon shade, and consistent moisture, you should be able to grow Colocasia and Taro pretty easily.. A nursery i worked for in Queen Creek had both growing along the edge of their Koi Pond in way more sun than i'd have expected them to survive here. Yerba Mansa / Lizard Tail also does well here under similar growing conditions. ( forget it if the spot stays too dry,  i tried.. ) Very lush and Tropical looking when happy..  Have heard of Sea Grape being grown here,  ( someone up in Black Canyon was apparently selling them, have seen them offered at our local Rare Fruit Sales ) along with a sister Coccoloba species from Sonora..

[Missi]

13 hours ago, greysrigging said:

Hard to beat the humble Caladium for that special colorful 'tropical' look.... 

They said no aroids 

More big leaf plants, people! 

[Jungle Yard]

There must be more large leaf lovers!

Reminder: please EXCLUDE aroids, palms and cycads, bananas and heliconias. 

[paquicuba]

6 hours ago, Jungle Yard said:

There must be more large leaf lovers!

Reminder: please EXCLUDE aroids, palms and cycads, bananas and heliconias. 

What about strelitzias?

 

[paquicuba]

Calathea lutea (Cuban Cigar)

[paquicuba]

Tibouchina grandifolia

 

[Jungle Yard]

15 minutes ago, paquicuba said:

Calathea lutea (Cuban Cigar)

That is one of the most beautifully grown Calathea lutea I'v seen in Florida. Thank you for sharing!

[Jungle Yard]

22 minutes ago, paquicuba said:

What about strelitzias?

 

Strelitzias are closely related to heliconias. 

[greysrigging]

17 hours ago, Missi said:

They said no aroids 

More big leaf plants, people! 

OK I admit it.... I didn't read the OP properly.... just looked at the pics....haha

OK here's a common one.... except I have not seen a Paw Paw tree ( papaya ) without the deeply serrated leaves before. My ones are the serrated leaf variety.

 

[paquicuba]

Clavija Domingensis that I'm planning to plant in the ground soon  

[paquicuba]

I have Leopard plants as ground covers in some shady areas

[Darold Petty]

Someone should post an image of Rhododendron sinogrande !

[daxin]

Nelumbo nucifera, I am growing a few in half barrels, The leaves are not as gigantic as they could be with ample root run, but they can still get to over 18” across with good fertilization and choice of large varieties

Tetrapanax ‘Steriodal Giant’, when happy its leaves can get to 3’ across and looks like a giant 20’ tall castor bean. There are many other candidates in the Araliaceae family, Trevesia palmata, Cussonia spicata, Schefflera macrophylla etc.

Magnolia ashei, native to northern Florida, fiddle-like leaves to 2’ long, huge white fragrant flowers in spring. Its larger brother M macrophylla has even bigger leaves but will take up more room and can get shaggy.

I have seen coppiced Paulownia tomentosa trees put out 2’+ leaves. Large-leaf Rhododendrons such as R sinogrande are very impressive like Darold said. If one can grow Cacao, I would guess that Teak and Breadfruit are feasible too. Maybe Cecropia species? The most impressive large leaf plant I have seen with the original poster’s restrictions ( no monocots & cycads ) is Gunnera killipiana with two 6’+ flat leaves just overhead on an 8” black trunk. It was much more impressive than Gunnera tinctoria, which is famous for its large leaves.

During the last IPS biennial in Colombia, I saw a bunch of obscure Magnolias native to that region. They all seem to have big leaves. There is also this most beautiful shrub Meriania hernandoi with not only crazily exotic orange flowers and also big glossy veined leaves.

Edited March 21, 2019 by daxin

[Jungle Yard]

15 minutes ago, daxin said:

Nelumbo nucifera, I am growing a few in half barrels, The leaves are not as gigantic as they could be with ample root run, but they can still get to over 18” across with good fertilization and choice of large varieties

Tetrapanax ‘Steriodal Giant’, when happy its leaves can get to 3’ across and looks like a giant 20’ tall castor bean. There are many other candidates in the Araliaceae family, Trevesia palmata, Cussonia spicata, Schefflera macrophylla etc.

Magnolia ashei, native to northern Florida, fiddle-like leaves to 2’ long, huge white fragrant flowers in spring. Its larger brother M macrophylla has even bigger leaves but will take up more room and can get shaggy.

I have seen coppiced Paulownia tomentosa trees put out 2’+ leaves. Large-leaf Rhododendrons such as R sinogrande are very impressive like Darold said. If one can grow Cacao, I would guess that Teak and Breadfruit are feasible too. Maybe Cecropia species? The most impressive large leaf plant I have seen with the original poster’s restrictions ( no monocots & cycads ) is Gunnera killipiana with two 6’+ flat leaves just overhead on an 8” black trunk. It was much more impressive than Gunnera tinctoria, which is famous for its large leaves.

During the last IPS biennial in Colombia, I saw a bunch of obscure Magnolias native to that region. They all seem to have big leaves. There is also this most beautiful shrub Meriania hernandezii with not only crazily exotic orange flowers and also big glossy veined leaves.

There are a lot of plants with huge leaves, the idea of this post is to see what members of this forum grow.

You would be surprised, but where I am, I can grow Cacao (marginally) but not the Breadfruit. 

Thank you for reminding about Cecropia. Here is Cecropia peltata that I grow, barely reached the leaf, too tall now!

... and here is another one in my collection - Morinda citrifolia

[Palm crazy]

On 3/21/2019 at 7:39 AM, Darold Petty said:

Someone should post an image of Rhododendron sinogrande !

My Rh. sinogrande is sad looking after the horrible February cold. So here are two from the PNW and the last one is mine. 

[Palm crazy]

Fatsia Japonica 'camouflage'.

[Palm crazy]

Schefflera delavayi. 

[Jungle Yard]

44 minutes ago, Palm crazy said:

My Rh. sinogrande is sad looking after the horrible February cold. So here are two from the PNW and the last one is mine. 

Nice set of plants you have!

I will try to grow Rh. sinogrande in Southwest Florida. It's sounds crazy, I know. I found no information on tolerance for daytime heat and night/day temperature differentiation. I think the difference between day and night temperatures is more important, as it can get pretty hot during the day on its original habitat. 

I will plant it in the shade and hoping to test the tolerance. It is an extremely exciting plant to have.

[Palm crazy]

26 minutes ago, Jungle Yard said:

Nice set of plants you have!

I will try to grow Rh. sinogrande in Southwest Florida. It's sounds crazy, I know. I found no information on tolerance for daytime heat and night/day temperature differentiation. I think the difference between day and night temperatures is more important, as it can get pretty hot during the day on its original habitat. 

I will plant it in the shade and hoping to test the tolerance. It is an extremely exciting plant to have.

Thanks! I have not heard of anyone trying this plant in your area or climate so it will be interesting to see what happens.  What's really cool about this exotic rhododendron is when the new leaves spears come up they are very coppery bronze metallic color and when they open they turn dark green and glossy.  Good luck! 

[tjwalters]

Rice Paper Plant 'Steroidal Giant' - Tetrapanax papyrifer (Araliaceae)

[Palmaceae]

Not large yet but will be,

Coccoloba pubescens

And a Wercklea ferox

 

 

[Kevin S]

Some red leaf 

[Kevin S]

 Travelers palm 

[GDLWyverex]

Here is a great large leafed phylodendron gloriosum as well as a beautiful alocasia longiloba in my roof top garder

http://selva.cabal.mx

 

[GDLWyverex]

Here is a great large leafed phylodendron gloriosum as well as a beautiful alocasia longiloba in my roof top garden

http://selva.cabal.mx

Forgot the photo in previous post

 

Richard

 

Edited April 28, 2019 by GDLWyverex

[Merlyn]

9 hours ago, Kevin S said:

Some red leaf 

That's a pretty wild red!  What is that plant?

[Kevin S]

6 hours ago, Merlyn2220 said:

That's a pretty wild red!  What is that plant?

Cordyline fruticosa common name is Ti.

[Merlyn]

7 hours ago, Kevin S said:

Cordyline fruticosa common name is Ti.

Ah ok, they carry the "Red Sister" and a few others around here in central FL.  That one looks like one they call "Balley Red" or maybe "Lucky."  If the older leaves turn a darker purple-red then I bet I can find one around here.  Thanks!

[Kevin S]

 Bread fruit Tree still a baby but growing steady.

[aussiearoids]

Amazon tree grape and Dabia leaf & new shoot.

[Palm crazy]

For the shade to part shade garden nothing like Podophyllum pleianthum x versipele.  Nice apple green leaves and dark burgundy flowers under the leaves, ... needs another day or two to fully open. 

 

[Chris Wilson]

I know you said excluding bananas lol but I wanted to share this Ensete Maurelii that I had growing in Ohio. I lost it this spring to rot but here is what it looked like at its peak in 2017. I just bought 2 new ones so I hope to have one of these giants again soon.

[Alex]

Balsa wood tree

[Alex]

podachaenium eminens

[Silas_Sancona]

50 minutes ago, Alex said:

Balsa wood tree

Nice Balsa.. Curious, you growing this in Cali or Florida??