Chrysosplenium macrophyllum

An evergreen woodland perennial from China. Spreading by runners into rosettes of glossy green rounded leaves, it makes a good ground cover in reasonably moist shade, bursting into a display of greenish white flowerheads with warm pink stamens around New Year, even ahead of the snowdrops. It could be interplanted with one of the taller snowdrop varieties.

As for the ugly official name, it translates as “large-leaved golden saxifrage”. Many of its smaller Asian cousna do have golden or yellow-green flower heads. A more distant relative is the native yellow saxifrage found in damp areas in Ireland.