Ban Xia/Crowdipper (Pinellia ternata)

Are you looking for a small, fascinating rarity for your shade garden or balcony? Pinellia ternata is a true botanical curiosity. With its unusual flower shape and ingenious way of self-propagation, it's sure to attract attention – and it's absolutely easy to care for and even winter-hardy!

In 7cm pots with several young tubers. Currently still dormant.

Growth & Appearance

• Lifespan: Perennial, tuber-forming, and winter-hardy.

• Height: Stays nicely compact at about 15 to 30 cm.

• Habit: Delicate growth. The fresh green leaves are characteristically trifoliate (hence the name "ternata").

• Bloom: From May to July, it displays the typical arum-family flower: a green spathe enclosing a spadix. The absolute highlight is the delicate, whip-like appendage of the spadix, which extends far out of the flower like a fine thread!

Origin Its original home is in East Asia (China, Japan, Korea). There, it prefers to grow at forest edges, in bushes, and in meadows.

Ingredients (IMPORTANT WARNING) Like almost all arum plants, the plant contains sharp calcium oxalate crystals in all its parts (especially in the tuber). The plant is toxic when raw and strongly irritates mucous membranes. Consumption or self-medication is absolutely forbidden!

Usage

• In the garden: A fantastic and rare ornamental plant for shady beds, woodland edges, or container cultivation. Perfect for collectors of exotic aroids (arum plants).

• In medicine (TCM): In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the tuber, known as "Ban Xia," is one of the most important medicinal plants. It is extensively pre-treated with ginger and alum to neutralize its toxicity, and then used as a strong remedy for nausea, coughs, and phlegm.

History The Chinese name "Ban Xia" translates to "Half Summer" or "Mid-Summer." It refers to the fact that in its Asian homeland, the tubers are traditionally harvested precisely in mid-summer (around the summer solstice), as they then have the highest concentration of active ingredients.

Curiosity (The plant that clones itself!) Pinellia has developed an ingenious survival trick: it forms tiny, spherical bulbils on its leaf petioles (often exactly where the three leaflets divide). As soon as the leaf withers and falls to the ground in autumn, entirely new, independent plants grow from these tiny bulbils the following spring.

Location, Care & Other Important Things

• Location: Partial shade to shade. No direct midday sun.

• Soil: Humus-rich, loose, and well-draining (waterlogging will cause the tuber to rot).

• Care & Wintering: Absolutely undemanding. In autumn, the plant completely retracts its leaves and overwinters as an invisible tuber in the soil. It is well winter-hardy in our latitudes. Tip: Mark the spot in the bed so you don't accidentally dig up the small tuber during autumn garden work!

• It can be grown very well in a pot.

Click here for the red-flowered Pinellia ternata `Atropurpurea`...