Tellima grandiflora

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Tellima grandiflora

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Kemper Code: F900

Common Name: fringe cups
Zone: 4 to 7
Plant Type: Herbaceous perennial
Family: Saxifragaceae
Missouri Native: No
Native Range: Western North America
Height: 1 to 2 feet
Spread: 1 to 2 feet
Bloom Time: April - May Bloom Data
Bloom Color: White or pink
Sun: Part shade
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Low

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Plant Culture and Characteristics

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Uses:		Wildlife:	Flowers:	Leaves:	Fruit:
Hedge	Suitable as annual	Attracts birds	Has showy flowers	Leaves colorful	Has showy fruit
Shade tree	Culinary herb	Attracts	Has fragrant flowers	Leaves fragrant	Fruit edible
Street tree	Vegetable	hummingbirds	Flowers not showy	Good fall color	Other:
Flowering tree	Water garden plant	Attracts	Good cut flower	Evergreen	Winter interest
Gr. cover (<1')	Will naturalize	butterflies	Good dried flower		Thorns or spines

General Culture:

Best grown in medium moisture, moisture retentive, humusy soils in part shade. Tolerates wet soils. Spreads by thick rhizomes and forms colonies in optimum growing conditions. Grows better in cool climates than hot, humid ones.

Noteworthy Characteristics:

Fringecup is a clump-forming but spreading perennial which is native to moist woods and slopes from Alaska to Idaho and central California. Fringecup is in the same family as and similar in appearance to Heuchera, Tiarella and Mitella (anagram of Tellima). Features a basal clump of toothed, shallowly-lobed, rounded, hairy, long-stalked, dark green leaves (to 4" across) which typically grow in a mound to 10" tall. Leaves may be tinged with purple and are semi-evergreen in warm winters. Greenish-white, bell-shaped flowers (1/2" long) with five reflexed fringed petals (tiny "fringed cups" as it were) appear in late spring in terminal racemes atop erect, wiry, nearly leafless stems rising well above the foliage clump, thus bringing total plant height when in flower to 24" tall. Flowers mature to pink. Also sometimes commonly called false alum root.

Problems:

No serious insect or disease problems.

Uses:

Remove flower stems after bloom for attractive ground cover. Best in partially shaded areas of woodland gardens, wildflower gardens, borders or rock gardens. Also may be grown on stream banks, pond edges or in moist meadows.