Indian Rhubarb, also called Umbrella Plant, is found in moist and shady areas, often along streambanks.  Native to southern Cascadia Floristic Region Floristic Region, it will hopefully advance north with climate change.  Rare, to our knowledge, now only existing along the Trinity River and places like Bonhoeffer Gardens via “assisted migration.”  The photo is from our Gardens Kiosk 8, Monet Bridge Island and we find, as we do for our Wapato, that muskrats and beaver love to eat this plant, as did the Native Indigenous. Western Washington State University SAM Project extinction model shows that an extinction possibility certainly exists here, although the plant is found in Utah.  For the largest specimens imaginable, we recommend visiting the St. Louis Botanical Gardens’ Conservatory where it and tulips grow 3’ tall.  We would expect that its leaves are poisonous as are cultivated rhubarbs (and we recommend Wisley Gardens for a full study of rhubarbs, 1st URL below).  One should be careful in handling this plant and there are too few existing to ever think of harvesting … please!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darmera_peltata
https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=DAPE
https://www.plc215.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Kiosk-08.pdf
http://naeb.brit.org/uses/search/?string=Darmera+peltata
https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=286946

Today one finds the Umbrella Plant in:

southwestern BC
southwestern Oregon
southwestern Washington

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