Manihot grahamii

[WSimpson]

I like the look of this plant . It has gotten huge this year because it didn't die back to the ground after spring growth but growth started about 5 feet up the trunk from the year before .  My lowest low last winter  was 19F . I wish I had a model in the first picture for scale because it is about 12 feet tall .

In the second picture another Manihot is on the left . 

 

 last winter but started 

Edited September 23, 2020 by Will Simpson

[Chester B]

I had no idea they got that big, I've only seen pictures of more skinny ones.  Definitely on my wish list but seems to be pretty hard to locate.

[greysrigging]

They are similar to the Abelmoschus manihot ( Aibika ). I have one in a pot at home that is nudging 12' tall. The leaves are edible and the plant is an important food crop in PNG, S E Asia and Polynesia.
Grows easily from cuttings. Also has a nice large yellow flower.

 

[WSimpson]

16 hours ago, Chester B said:

I had no idea they got that big, I've only seen pictures of more skinny ones.  Definitely on my wish list but seems to be pretty hard to locate.

They send seed out by the seed pods  bursting so you may have a lot of weeds to deal with in the vicinity of your plant  . They are really nice looking . 

Thanks ,

Will

[Stevetoad]

19 hours ago, Chester B said:

I had no idea they got that big, I've only seen pictures of more skinny ones.  Definitely on my wish list but seems to be pretty hard to locate.

i had these in my yard. the seed pods explode and send seeds everywhere. I cut mine down but they are still popping up all over. If you pm me your address Im sure i can send you some seeds ( they grow very fast). seedlings and probably a cutting too.  

[Chester B]

7 hours ago, Stevetoad said:

i had these in my yard. the seed pods explode and send seeds everywhere. I cut mine down but they are still popping up all over. If you pm me your address Im sure i can send you some seeds ( they grow very fast). seedlings and probably a cutting too.  

Wow that's so kind of you.  Thank you!

[tropicbreeze]

On 9/24/2020 at 3:52 AM, Will Simpson said:

I like the look of this plant . It has gotten huge this year because it didn't die back to the ground after spring growth but growth started about 5 feet up the trunk from the year before .  My lowest low last winter  was 19F . I wish I had a model in the first picture for scale because it is about 12 feet tall .

In the second picture another Manihot is on the left . 

 

I have the very similar looking and closely related Manihot esculenta, Cassava. From your photo, they look almost identical. Cassava is a very important food plant, they develop very large edible tubers. But they don't flower or set seed. It's believed they've been cultivated for so long the sexual reproduction has been bred out of them and they're only propagated from cuttings. They get very tall and spindly if they have support like a tree close by, but otherwise tend to sprawl.

 

[doubravsky]

I had the same experience. Cut mine down 7 years ago, and had a seedling pop up this year on the other side of the yard. Pretty tree... but the bees love them like crazy too. It was weird to hear them explode and bounce of the house wall 50 feet away!

[Swolte]

Dang, its one of my favorite plants. I'd written a Facebook/blog post about it once a while back:

"The challenge of finding plants that can handle our extreme weather fluctuations are daunting at times. And if you have found such a plant, you'd ideally want them to look good throughout the seasons on top of that. This latter feat is near impossible as most plants simply look drabby and exhausted near the end of summer with 3 months of temperatures around 35+ Celsius in a blistering sun. The lush tropical feel I am going for is therefore mostly simulated by combining tropical look-a-like desert plants, such as yucca's. It a bit cheating but it works for me.

Manihot Grahamii, or hardy Cassave, cheats the above premise. I got this tropical plant in the winter of 2018 from Plant Delights nursery in a tiny container and its been simply amazing since I put it in the ground. Frankly, knowing what I know now, I probably would not have purchased it and scoffed at claims that such a plant could survive here. The large tropical leaves would burn to a crisp in full sun without constant water and if it were to survive, a mild, wet winter would surely kill it! But, back in 2018, I was naïve and, being a hopeless romantic, I fell for the architecturally sophisticated leaves.

The picture shows what this beast currently looks like. I rarely water it and its in full sun. It does die back in the winter but it comes back with a vengeance. I never even expected it to tower above me but it does. The leaves are a lush green and basically REMAIN so until the first frost. During the worst dry spells, the leaves hang a bit but a bucket of water quickly have them look dapper again (I only had to do so once last year).

The plant looks lifted from a south american rainforest (where's its indeed native), but somehow it works here in central Texas. The secret, I believe, is being in the euphorbiaceae (spurge) family of which many succulents and cactus-like plants also belong. They are characterized by an often poisonous milky sap if you break their 'leaves'. Also explains why the deer leave it alone (The roots, on the other hand, are used as a great source of starch!). "

The plant has since grown even larger and I can take a pic of that later this weekend. 

[Swolte]

The pic above was taken at the beginning of this summer but this one was taken yesterday (beginning of the fall). Gives you an idea of the growth of this beast.

[Fhiobcff]

Does anyone know where I can find a manihot grahamii cutting or seeds??

[DAVEinMB]

On 5/11/2021 at 8:35 PM, Fhiobcff said:

Does anyone know where I can find a manihot grahamii cutting or seeds??

Plants delight nursery sells them, i just placed an order for one. 

[wxman]

Here’s mine.  Zone 5b, SE Wisconsin. 

Edited February 12, 2022 by wxman

[wxman]

On 8/26/2021 at 1:20 PM, DAVEinMB said:

Plants delight nursery sells them, i just placed an order for one. 

I have over 100 seeds.