Chilean Rhubarb

gunnera tinctoria

Chilean Rhubarb is a spectacular, giant herbaceous plant known for its dramatic, prehistoric appearance and colossal leaves. Despite its common name, it is completely unrelated to culinary rhubarb, instead belonging to the ancient Gunneraceae family. Native to the damp rainforests and coastal regions of southern Chile and Argentina, this architectural marvel is highly prized in dramatic landscaping but has also gained notoriety as a highly aggressive invasive species in wet temperate zones like Ireland, Great Britain, and New Zealand. It dominates damp habitats by casting dense shade that suppresses native flora.

生息地: Thrives in damp, coastal areas, stream banks, wet grasslands, and boggy soils.

外見

This massive plant is easily identified by its giant, umbrella-like leaves that can grow up to 2.5 meters across. The leaves are circular, palmately lobed, and incredibly rough to the touch, with a sandpaper-like texture. Thick, fleshy leaf stalks (petioles) are covered in reddish, prickle-like spikes. From the center of the plant, stout, cone-shaped flowering spikes up to 1 meter tall emerge, packed with thousands of tiny, inconspicuous reddish-green flowers that eventually produce small, fleshy orange-red berries.

界Plantae門Tracheophyta綱Magnoliopsida目Gunnerales科Gunneraceae属Gunnera

Chilean Rhubarb

カテゴリ

植物

レア度

Common

危険度

1/5 · 非常に低い

スナップ

最初にスナップしよう！

おもしろい事実

A single mature Chilean Rhubarb plant can produce up to 250,000 seeds in a single year, which are easily spread by water and birds.

The Mapuche people of South America traditionally used the roots of the Chilean Rhubarb to extract a strong black dye for coloring wool textiles.

The acidic leaf stalks are technically edible and are consumed raw with salt or sugar in traditional Chilean cuisine, despite their astringency.

特殊能力

Hosts symbiotic cyanobacteria of the genus Nostoc within specialized glands on its stems, allowing it to extract nitrogen directly from the air and thrive in nutrient-poor soils.

Grows gargantuan leaves rapidly in the spring, blocking up to ninety-nine percent of light from reaching the ground to suppress competing vegetation.

Can regenerate entirely from small fragments of its thick, underground rhizomes, making it highly resilient to physical clearing.

サイズと詳細

長さ: 150-300 cm
体重: 10-150 kg
寿命: 10-50 年

食性と食事

As a photoautotroph, it synthesizes its own organic compounds using sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water, heavily supplemented by nitrogen provided by symbiotic cyanobacteria.

主な食物

Sunlight
Water
Carbon Dioxide
Atmospheric Nitrogen

生態系とのつながり

competitor

Common Bracken

Pteridium aquilinum

Provides shelter and maintains moisture in damp environments, but its dense canopy heavily outcompetes native ferns.

mutualism

Nostoc Cyanobacteria

Nostoc punctiforme

Houses the nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria inside its stem tissues in a vital mutualistic relationship.

eaten by

Domestic Sheep

Ovis aries

Introduced sheep occasionally graze on the young, less prickly leaves of the plant in coastal pastures.

特徴

このオブジェクトにはまだ特徴バッジが割り当てられていません。

別名

まだ別名はありません。

コレクション

テーマが追加されると、このオブジェクトのコレクションがここに表示されます。

安全性

危険度

1/5 · 非常に低い

まだ特別な安全上の注意はありません。

よくある質問

Chilean Rhubarbを見分けるには？

Chilean Rhubarbを識別する最も簡単な方法は、Snappit自然識別アプリを使用することです。

Chilean Rhubarbの長さは何ですか？

150-300 cm

Chilean Rhubarbの体重は何ですか？

10-150 kg

Chilean Rhubarbの寿命は何ですか？

10-50 年

Chilean Rhubarbは何を食べますか？

As a photoautotroph, it synthesizes its own organic compounds using sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water, heavily supplemented by nitrogen provided by symbiotic cyanobacteria.

Chilean Rhubarbは通常どこに生息していますか？

Thrives in damp, coastal areas, stream banks, wet grasslands, and boggy soils.