''Aralia spinosa'', commonly known as devil's walking stick, is a woody species of plant in the genus ''
Aralia
''Aralia'' , or spikenard, is a genus of the family Araliaceae, consisting of 68 accepted species of deciduous or evergreen trees, shrubs, and rhizomatous herbaceous perennials. The genus is native to Asia and the Americas, with most species o ...
'', family
Araliaceae
The Araliaceae are a family of flowering plants composed of about 43 genera and around 1500 species consisting of primarily woody plants and some herbaceous plants. The morphology of Araliaceae varies widely, but it is predominantly distinguisha ...
, native to eastern
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
. The various names refer to the viciously sharp, spiny stems, petioles, and even leaf midribs. It has also been known as Angelica-tree.
This species is sometimes called Hercules' club, prickly ash, or prickly elder, common names it shares with the unrelated ''
Zanthoxylum clava-herculis
''Zanthoxylum clava-herculis'', the Hercules' club, Hercules-club, pepperwood, or southern prickly ash, is a spiny tree or shrub native to the southeastern United States. It grows to 10–17 m tall and has distinctive spined thick, corky lumps 2â ...
''. For this reason, ''Aralia spinosa'' is sometimes confused with that species and mistakenly called the ''toothache tree'', but it does not have the medicinal properties of ''Zanthoxylum clava-herculis''.
''Aralia spinosa'' is occasionally cultivated for its exotic, tropical appearance, having large lacy compound leaves. It is closely related to the Asian species ''
Aralia elata
''Aralia elata'', the Japanese angelica tree, Chinese angelica-tree, or Korean angelica-tree, is a woody plant belonging to the family Araliaceae. It is known as ''tara-no-ki'' (; ) in Japanese, and ''dureup-namu'' () in Korean.
Description
It i ...
'', a more commonly cultivated species with which it is easily confused.
Description
''Aralia spinosa'' is an aromatic spiny
deciduous
In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...
shrub
A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...
or small tree growing tall, with a simple or occasionally branched stem with very large bipinnate
leaves
A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...
long. The trunks are up to in diameter, with the plants umbrella-like in habit with open crowns. The young stems are stout and thickly covered with sharp spines. The plants generally grow in clusters of branchless trunks, although stout wide-spreading branches are occasionally produced.
The
flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...
s are creamy-white, individually small (about across) but produced in large composite
panicle
A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...
s long; flowering is in the late summer. The
fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...
is a purplish-black
berry
A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples are strawberries, raspb ...
in diameter, ripening in the fall. The roots are thick and fleshy.
The doubly or triply compound leaves are the largest of any temperate tree in the continental United States, often about a meter (three feet) long and 60 cm (two feet) wide, with leaflets about long. The petioles are prickly, with swollen bases. In the autumn the leaves turn to a peculiar bronze red touched with yellow which makes the tree conspicuous and attractive.
The habit of growth and general appearance of ''Aralia spinosa'' and related tree-forming ''Aralia'' species are unique. It is usually found as a group of unbranched stems, rising to the height of , which bear upon their summits a crowded cluster of doubly or triply compound leaves, thus giving to each stem a certain tropical
palm
Palm most commonly refers to:
* Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand
* Palm plants, of family Arecaceae
**List of Arecaceae genera
* Several other plants known as "palm"
Palm or Palms may also refer to:
Music
* Palm (ba ...
-like appearance. In the south it is said to reach the height of , still retaining its palm-like aspect. However, further north, the slender, swaying, palm-like appearance is most characteristic of younger plants that have not been damaged by winter storms.
![Aralia spinosa](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Aralia_spinosa.jpg)
* Bark: Light brown, divided into rounded broken ridges. Branchlets one-half to two-thirds of an inch in diameter, armed with stout, straight or curved, scattered prickles and nearly encircled by narrow leaf scars. At first light yellow brown, shining and dotted, later light brown.
* Wood: Brown with yellow streaks; light, soft, brittle, close-grained.
* Winter buds: Terminal bud chestnut brown, one-half to three-fourths of an inch long, conical, blunt; axillary buds flattened, triangular, one-fourth of an inch in length.
* Leaves: Clustered at the end of the branches, compound, bi- and tri-pinnate, three to four feet long, two and a half feet broad. The pinnae are unequally pinnate, having five or six pairs of leaflets and a long stalked terminal leaflet; these leaflets are often themselves pinnate. The last leaflets are ovate, two to three inches long, wedge-shaped or rounded at base, serrate or dentate, acute; midrib and primary veins prominent. They come out of the bud a bronze green, shining, somewhat hairy; when full grown are dark green above, pale beneath; midribs frequently furnished with prickles. Petioles stout, light brown, eighteen to twenty inches in length, clasping, armed with prickles. Stipules acute, one-half inch long.
* Flowers: July, August. Perfect or
polygamomonoecious, cream white, borne in many-flowered umbels arranged in compound panicles, forming a terminal racemose cluster, three to four feet in length which rises, solitary or two or three together, above the spreading leaves. Bracts and bractlets lanceolate, acute, persistent.
* Calyx: Calyx tube coherent with the ovary, minutely five-toothed.
* Corolla: Petals five, white, inserted on margin of the disk, acute, slightly inflexed at the apex, imbricate in bud.
* Stamens: Five, inserted on margin of the disk, alternate with the petals; filaments thread-like; anthers oblong, attached on the back, introrse, two-celled; cells opening longitudinally.
* Pistil: Ovary inferior, five-celled; styles five, connivent; stigmas capitate.
* Fruit: Berry-like drupe, globular, black, one-fourth of an inch long, five-angled, crowned with the blackened styles. Flesh thin, dark.
Distribution and habitat
''Aralia spinosa'' is widespread in the eastern
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, ranging from
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
to
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
along the Atlantic coast, and westward to
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
,
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
, and
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
. It prefers a deep moist soil.
The plants typically grow in the forest
understory
In forestry and ecology, understory (American English), or understorey (Commonwealth English), also known as underbrush or undergrowth, includes plant life growing beneath the forest canopy without penetrating it to any great extent, but abov ...
or at the edges of forests, often forming
clonal thickets by sprouting from the roots.
This tree was admired by the
Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
because of its usefulness, and for its rarity. The Iroquois would take the saplings of the tree and plant them near their villages and on islands, so that animals wouldn't eat the valuable fruit. The fruit was used in many of the natives' foods. The women would take the flowers and put them in their hair because of the lemony smell. The flowers could also be traded for money.
In the past, botanists attributed occurrences of ''Aralia'' north of
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
and
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
in the
Middle Atlantic states
Middle or The Middle may refer to:
* Centre (geometry), the point equally distant from the outer limits.
Places
* Middle (sheading), a subdivision of the Isle of Man
* Middle Bay (disambiguation)
* Middle Brook (disambiguation)
* Middle Creek ( ...
to introductions of ''Aralia spinosa'' from areas to the south. However some of these occurrences are now known to be of ''
Aralia elata
''Aralia elata'', the Japanese angelica tree, Chinese angelica-tree, or Korean angelica-tree, is a woody plant belonging to the family Araliaceae. It is known as ''tara-no-ki'' (; ) in Japanese, and ''dureup-namu'' () in Korean.
Description
It i ...
'' (Japanese Angelica-tree), a related Asian species that is
invasive in the area. ''A. spinosa'' and ''A. elata'' are difficult to distinguish in the field, leading to confusion. In at least one locality, in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, ''A. elata'' is displacing ''A. spinosa'', with as yet unknown impacts on the local ecology.
Uses
The young leaves can be eaten if gathered before the prickles harden. They are then chopped finely and cooked as a
potherb
Leaf vegetables, also called leafy greens, pot herbs, vegetable greens, or simply greens, are plant leaves eaten as a vegetable, sometimes accompanied by tender petioles and shoots. Leaf vegetables eaten raw in a salad can be called salad gre ...
.
''Aralia spinosa'' was introduced into cultivation in 1688 and is still grown for its decorative foliage, prickly stems, large showy flower
panicle
A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...
s
lusters and distinctive fall color. These plants are slow growing, tough and durable, do well in urban settings, but bear numerous prickles on their stems, petioles, and leaflets. These plants can be propagated from seeds or root cuttings.
Early American settlers used the plant for its alleged properties of curing toothaches.
In a laboratory study, extracts from the plant, used as a medicine during the American Civil War, showed antimicrobial activity against multidrug-resistant bacteria associated with wound infections.
References
External links
''Aralia spinosa'' images at bioimages.vanderbilt.edu* Grieve, M. Mrs. (1931)
'
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2666305
spinosa
Trees of the Northeastern United States
Trees of the Southern United States
Trees of the Southeastern United States
Trees of the South-Central United States
Leaf vegetables
Trees of the United States
Plants described in 1753
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
Trees of the Great Lakes region (North America)
Trees of North America
Trees of the Eastern United States