Bear’s Breeches - Acanthus mollis

A robust, clump-forming perennial herb with large, glossy dark green leaves, pinnately lobed and, in late summer, tall racemes of white flowers with dusky purple bracts.

Usually encountered as an escape from cultivation, persisting where it is dumped from gardens in sites such as roadsides, railway banks, waste places and in woodlands.

Flowering is irregular, particularly in shaded sites.

Perennial herb. Although seed is produced, spread is almost exclusively through dispersal of root fragments.

Widespread, and probably increasing in the wild.

Rarely recorded in the wild in Leicestershire and Rutland.