Pseudopanax ferox

The Toothed Lancewood from New Zealand has an unmistakable growth form. For years as a youth it grows rigidly upward with slim, very tough, almost plastic, heavily and knobbly toothed evergreen leaves up to 50cm long pointing rigidly downwards at an acute angle. Usually dark purple-brown-green, they become much shorter in adulthood when the plant changes into a dense lollipop-shaped small tree. Survived winter 2010 in Oxfordshire!