Hello,

I have a plant in my shade garden that was given to me from a friend when our family first moved into our home 3 years ago. At the time he told me the plant was called "Elephant Ears" and out of curiosity I looked that up online but came to deadend when I noticed that the Elephant Ear plants in catalogs and online did not look like what I have growing in my shade garden.

Here is the best description I can give without a photo. This plant must be a foliage plant because it does not produce flowers at least that I've noticed? The leaves look just like elephant ears which is why I thought the name fit well however they look more rounder than the pictures of elephant ears I've seen. I have two types of these plants. The first is a few inches smaller than the second. The topside is a dark green and the underside and stalks/stems are a dark purple. The leaves are somewhat shiny. The second type is larger, does not have a purple underside and is not shiny, it has a rough texture. The leaves are around 10" wide and the height of the plant is 1'. This plant does perfectly fine in the colder climate that I live in (Zone 5) and I have not lost a plant yet so they seem to be hardy.

*NOTE* I will also post this message in Shade Gardening to see if anyone there might be familiar with this plant also.

Thanks for any info or pictures that are provided!

Jenne