Giant Butterbur
Petasites japonicus (Siebold & Zucc.) Maxim.
- light
- Part–shade
- water
- —
- tall
- 1.2 m
- wide
- 6.0 m
Asteraceae
Also called Japanese Butterbur, Fuki, Bog rhubarb, Giant butterbur, Japanese sweet coltsfoot
Formerly Nardosmia japonica
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- Rhizomatous geophyteKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- TemperateKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- China to Sakhalin and Nanei-shotōKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Part shade to shade (under 6 h)Read from Royal Horticultural Society, one source
- Height
- 99 cm to 1.5 mRead from Royal Horticultural Society, one source
- Spread
- 4.0 m to 8.0 mRead from Royal Horticultural Society, one source
- Coldest it survives
- -20 °C (USDA zone 6b)Read from Royal Horticultural Society, one source
Not known yet: water, flowers, heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- Japanese
- フキ, 蕗, 苳
- root
- Fuki
- French
- Pétasite du Japon
- Czech
- devětsil japonský
- Swedish
- Bitterskråp
- Danish
- Japansk hestehov
- Norwegian Bokmål
- japanpestrot
- Russian
- Белокопытник широкий, Белокопытник японский, Болотный ревень
- Finnish
- idänruttojuuri, Japaninruttojuuri
- Lithuanian
- Japoninis šaukštis
- Chinese
- 蜂斗菜, 款冬花
- Korean
- 머위
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- Royal Horticultural Society, read 2026-10-26, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY 2.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- 3D model: Petasites japonicus (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.