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Resources < Wildlife Habitats < Guide to Native Plants of Georgia for Wildlife <Aralia spinosa
Devil ’s walkingstick isn’t your average tame and boring little landscape plant. No, with its enormous, complicated leaves and thick, club-like trunk dressed in an armor of orange spines, it’s wonderfully grotesque and gothic, the sort of plant you’d expect to meet in a fairy tale. Plant a devil’s walkingstick and add a little romance to your garden.
From July to September, devil’s walkingstick’s grand, showy masses of tiny white flowers attract both butterflies and bees. In fall, an amazing abundance of black, berry-like drupes provides feasts for cardinals, mockingbirds, brown thrashers, and a host of other bird species. Obviously, this is not a plant for the faint of heart. In moist soils, devil’s walkingstick suckers just as profusely as it flowers and fruits. However, if plants are sited in drier areas, their suckers can easily be controlled by mowing.
Araliaceae (Ginseng Family)
Large deciduous shrub or small tree with dark green, pinnately compound leaves up to 4’ long and 3’ wide. Trunks are seldom branched and spiny. 3 to 4’ clusters of small white flowers bloom in mid to late summer, followed by large quantities of ¼" black drupes in late summer to fall. Fall leaf color is yellow.
15 to 20’ high and 15’ wide.
Large shrub or small tree, usually with a single unbranched trunk. Tends to sucker and form dense thickets, especially in moist areas.
Slow to medium on old wood, fast on suckers.
Full sun to full shade. Flowers better with more sun.
For best results, plant in moist, fertile, acid soils. Though plants prefer consistently moist soils, they will also tolerate drier conditions.
Assets include an interesting trunk, huge compound leaves, enormous masses of white flowers in summer, and copious juicy black fruits in late summer to fall.
Plant as a specimen or in masses at the edge of a woodland. Makes an intriguing focal point in a lawn or at the curve of a driveway or path.
Seeds are eaten by cardinals, mockingbirds, brown thrashers, wood thrushes, and bluebirds. Flowers are used by the tiger swallowtail butterfly.
Found throughout Georgia as an understory species in moist areas along streams and bottomlands. Also occurs occasionally on drier upland slopes.
Stratified seed, root cuttings.
Also known as Hercules' Club
Written by Leslie Kimel, Georgia Wildlife Federation
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Devil's Walkingstick
