Description
Tetrapanax papyrifer | Rice Paper Plant ‘Steroidal Giant’
The Rice Paper Plant, also called Rice Paper Tree (formerly known as Aralia mairei, Aralia papyrifera, Didymopanax papyriferus, Echinopanax papyriferus, Fatsia papyrifera, and Panax papyrifer) is a thicket-forming sub-tropical shrub or small tree with stout shoots bearing very large, rounded, deeply-lobed, mid-green leaves that are highly-tomentose underneath. In warmer zones plants will put out small creamy-white flowers in fall that are followed by small dark fruits..
Native to Taiwan, it’s used mostly for ornamental purposes like the back of borders or for screening. Over a few years time a colony can form via underground rhizomes with plants that can reach heights of 18 ft tall with HUGE 3 ft wide leaves which can remain evergreen year round in warmer zones. When temps drop to around 18 F the leaves will drop. From our experience, the tall stalks will start to die back to the ground at 5-10 F, however plants are root-hardy to -5 to 0 F. Plants erupt again in spring from bare stalks and grow rapidly each year.
To acquire this plant we went on an 8-hour road trip out of state. It is extremely rare and is nearly impossible to find online. After growing our Steroidal Giant plants for a few years we now have 3 separate colonies established, of which the largest plant has reached 8 ft tall. And we’ve seen them up to 10+ ft tall in zone 8a.
Please note that this is NOT the more common and smaller ‘Rex’ cultivar. This is the ‘STEROIDAL GIANT’ cultivar with HUGE, deeply-cut leaves.
Plants accept a wide range of soil conditions and spreads via underground rhizomes which may need to be cut and (re)moved to limit the spread, although we are glad the plants perform so well as this is one of our favorite plants and we are just now letting a few out.
Type: Perennial
Sun exposure: Full sun to part shade
Mature height: 8-15 ft
Mature width: 6 ft
Hardiness zones: 7-10
The plant you will receive will be one of the ones in a photo or a similar one.
Please note: We ship live plant orders out on Mondays & Tuesdays only.