Plant Profile: Devil’s Walking Stick, Aralia Spinosa

Figure 1. Aralia spinosa, devil's walking stick;
note the compound leaves and terminal flower
arrangement. Photo credit: Gil Nelson.

By Nnamdi Ofodile

This post is one of a series from professor Nisse Goldberg's Botany students at Jacksonville University.

Classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Apiales
Family: Araliaceae
Genus: Aralia
Specific epithet: spinosa

Description
Aralia spinosa, Devil’s walking stick, is the only Aralia species in Florida (Figure 1) and is an aromatic spiny shrub/small tree of the Ginseng or Araliaceae family. You can find this plant in the northern and central counties of the state, and in moist soils that are partially shaded by a canopy, where it typically grows between 12 and 15 feet high.

Figure 2. A. spinosa with notable prickles.
Photo credit: Shirley Denton.

Figure 3. Drupes of devil's walking stick.
Photo credit: Virginia Ducey.

Lean against the thin trunk of Devil's walking stick and you'll quickly figure out where the plant's name comes from. The stems are armed up and down with exceptionally sharp spines, hence spinosa (Figure 2). To add insult to injury, the petioles and surfaces of the pinnately-compound leaves, which can be 3 feet long and equally wide, are covered in pointed prickles. The flowers are creamy white and have a lemony scent. Undeterred by the prickles, pollinators such as bees, butterflies visit the flowers for the nectar (Figure 1). The fruit, a purplish-black berry-like drupe, is eaten by birds during autumn months (Figure 3).

Uses
As with other members of the Ginseng family, this species has medicinal properties. It has been used to treat tooth aches, fever, and snakebites, among other ailments. In the Victorian era, A. spinosa was planted as a novelty for its tropical foliage and prickly stems.

References
• http://www.floridata.com/ref/a/aral_spi.cfm
• http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=ARSP2
• Wunderlin, R. P., and B. F. Hansen. 2008. Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants (http://www.plantatlas.usf.edu/). [S. M. Landry and K. N. Campbell (application development), Florida Center for Community Design and Research.] Institute for Systematic Botany, University of South Florida, Tampa.

Image Sources
Figure 1. http://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/Photo.aspx?id=104
Figure 2. http://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/Photo.aspx?id=4964
Figure 3. http://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/Photo.aspx?id=3245